Merpati Ordered 3 Chinese Planes

Jakarta, Indonesia (News Today) - National airline company PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines (MNA) will receive three new MA-60 aircrafts from Xian Aircraft, China.

"The three planes will arrive in Indonesia on July this year," Secretary of the State Companies Ministry Said Didu said in Jakarta Thursday.

According to Said, the planes are part of 13 aircrafts Merpati has ordered from Xian Aircraft which will be arriving in Indonesia in stages. He said that under the purchase contract, actually the three planes should have arrived last month.

"The delivery has been advanced to July in connection with the sub-loan agreement (SLA) of the Finance Minister reached on Wednesday (June 30)," Said added.

After the completion of the SLA, the state-owned airline company is still awaiting the technical preparations including the procurement of the 13 MA-60 planes in stages.

"The 13 planes would have arrived in Indonesia this year," he said, adding that thus, the number of the planes would be 15, because two had earlier already been procured.

Said Didu, who is also chief commissioner of Merpati, also said that the delay of the arrival of the planes had affected the company’s income. According to Said, following the middle of last month, the number of passengers had increased considerably in view of school holidays. With regard to addition of Rp 310 billion in capital for Merpati, Said stated that he was awaiting approval of the Finance Minister.

"We hope the additional capital could be realized according to schedule," Said added.

In 2009, Merpati under its restructuring and revitalizing scheme, has received a government injection of Rp 300 billion by way of PT Perusahaan Pengelola Aset (PPA) in the form of State Capital Participation (PMN).

Rp 223 billion of the money will be used for employees rationalization program, Rp 10 billion for moving the head office to Makassar, Rp 12 billion for the propeller fleet revitalization program, a working capital of Rp50 billion, and Rp 5 billion in readiness funds. Merpati in the long-run, is not only procuring 15 MA-60 planes, but is also buying 20 SAAB 340B Plus aircraft from Sweden, and seven ATR 72 training aircraft from France.

Source : kompas

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