Garuda Indonesia Posts 1H Net Profit, Garuda Indonesia Reports Half-Year Net Profit of $15.898 Million

August 2/2007
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- National carrier Garuda Indonesia said Thursday it booked a half-year net profit of US$15.898 million (euro11.6 million), swinging from a US$38.786 million (euro28.3 million) loss a year earlier.ADVERTISEMENT Chief Executive Emirsyah Satar said Garuda's efforts to improve its performance, such as restructuring routes, contributed to its financial turnaround.

Passenger numbers grew 8 percent to 4.3 million during the January-June period from a year earlier, Satar said.

He said Garuda's load factor improved to 76 percent from 70 percent last year, while the number of revenue-generating domestic routes increased to 26 from only seven last year.
Meanwhile, Satar said the airline was optimistic that it would not be banned from flying to Saudi Arabia.

A team from the Saudi civil aviation authority is in Indonesia to verify Garuda's safety standards, following the European Commission's recent decision to ban all Indonesian commercial carriers from flying to the region on safety grounds.

Saudi Arabia uses the E.U.'s aviation policy as a reference but has not banned Indonesian airlines yet.

"I have met with them and they said that they are satisfied," Satar said. "Garuda is judged to have met international aviation standards."

The state-owned Garuda is the only local airliner that flies to Saudi Arabia, carrying about 200,000 Muslims every year to that country for the Haj pilgrimage.

The company has appealed to the E.U. to lift the ban, claiming the airline complies with international aviation safety standards.