Jakarta – National airline Garuda Indonesia (Garuda) projects that its business performance record will continue to grow consistently and show a positive outlook until the end of 2023 following increased public interest in air travel in line with the momentum of the national tourism industry growth this year.
“In line with the positive performance growth recorded by the company since the beginning of 2023, we estimate an upward trend in the number of passengers of up to 36.45 percent in the third quarter of 2023 when compared to the same period in 2022,” said Garuda Indonesia President Director, Irfan Setiaputra, as quoted by InfoPublik on Thursday (1/6/2023).
Irfan further said that Garuda’s passenger transportation until the third quarter of this year is expected to exceed the achievement of passenger transportation throughout 2022. “This projection is an achievement in itself to see the performance outlook in 2023 which is in line with the company’s strategic action efforts in achieving accelerated performance recovery through increased passenger traffic supported by the completion of the restructuring process at the end of last year,” he said.
Optimism for Garuda’s performance this year, according to Irfan, is also represented through the company’s EBITDA which recorded growth at the end of the first quarter to 71 million USD and a positive cash flow position. This is supported by a performance foundation that continues to be strengthened through an increasingly healthy business income fundament, especially after various comprehensive restructuring efforts carried out in 2022.
In addition, Garuda also managed to increase the achievement of the revenue per aircraft ratio by 11.29 percent to 26.10 million USD in 2022 compared to the aircraft per revenue ratio in 2019 of 23.45 million USD. This is an indicator of increasingly optimal productivity where the company’s performance, which is currently supported by a fleet composition that has decreased significantly by 70 percent compared to 2019, can produce a higher revenue per aircraft ratio.
“With a healthier performance foundation, the company’s sustainable steps in maximizing performance growth will certainly continue in 2023 in a measured and proportional manner, by maximizing profitability and increasing production equipment which is also aligned with diversification efforts and increasing full-service flight services,” said Irfan.
With regard to the focus of performance in 2023, Irfan revealed that a number of the company’s strategic steps continue to be optimized, especially on production capacity to support operational activities, including Garuda will add five narrow body aircraft of the Boeing 737-800 NG type which will be available in stages throughout 2023.
“In the initial phase, two aircraft are scheduled to be received by Garuda at the beginning of the third quarter. Meanwhile, the delivery of the other three aircraft is expected to be received in the fourth quarter. Thus, it is expected that by the end of 2023 the number of Garuda’s fleet will be even stronger where the company will operate at least 63 fleets to support various flight operational steps, including in the network development strategy for several flight routes that are the preference of the public,” concluded Irfan.
