Garuda Indonesia Group (garuda) held an inauguration ceremonial event of an initial flight of freighter operated by Citilink Indonesia (Citilink) as their subsidiary airlines in order to expand air transportation connectivity to Indonesia’ eastern region, especially Papua province.

The type of the airplane used for cargo carriers is Boeing 737-500 with the capacity volume up to 12 tons.

The President Director of Garuda Indonesia, Ari Askhara explained, later Merpati Nusantara Airlines (Merpati) will take a role as a General Sales Agent to make sure the volume level of cargo is filled well. The freighter route will serve Papua with an initial operation on Jayapura – Wamena vv route.

“Right on today, a Citilink Indonesia’ airplane will be operated to Papua from Jakarta. Total airplanes that will be used as a freighter are five - 3 airplanes owned by Garuda Indonesia and 2 airplanes owned by Citilink Indonesia”, said Ari.

The expectation, the moment of a Hero Day (“Hari Pahlawan”) on 10 November will become a milestone as the result of a healthy aviation industry ecosystem in Indonesia through the return of Merpati Nusantara Airlines rise as one of the Indonesia National Airlines to optimize connectivity in Indonesia.

As an info, in the middle of October 2019, Garuda Indonesia and the nine state-owned corporates synergized to interlace strategic partnership supporting PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines’ (Merpati) business restructuration commitment.

The contents of memorandum of undertanding, one of them is the partnership of Air Cargo Services besides Ground Handling, Maintenance Repair & Overhaul (MRO) and Training Center.

Garuda Indonesia and several state-owned corporates (Semen Indonesia, Pertamina, Perum Bulog, PPI, and PLN) will support the management of Merpati’s cargo business through cargo delivery services in Papua.