REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, KUPANG -- Airplanes operated by publicly listed PT Garuda Indonesia will soon take over the routes of Merpati Nusantara Airlines (MNA) in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province, according to Garuda official.

"Garuda plans to take over the MNA routes in NTT by the end of March 2014," Kupang based Garuda District Area Manager Micky Irfandi stated here on Tuesday.

According to him, Garuda will take over MNA routes of Kupang-Ende-Labuan Bajo-Denpasar, and Kupang-Tambolaka-Denpasar to ease air transportation access by local people.

"Besides this, starting March 17 this year, Garuda will also serve Kupang-Mataram-Surabaya route, and thus, Lombok bound passengers will no longer have to stopover at Ngurah Rai airport in Denpasar," Micky added.

He explained that Lombok bound passengers from Kupang have so far been forced to make a stopover in Denpasar, and therefore, Garuda wanted to serve the Kupang-Mataram-Surabaya route.

"Garuda also plans to open Kupang-Maumere-Makassar route but it is still in the stage of survey," he elaborated.

Micky noted that by serving the new routes, Garuda will have wider access of air transportation in East Nusa Tenggara islands province.

Further, he explained that since the presence of Garuda in East Nusa Tenggara at the end of 2013, it has gained a positive response from the local people with passenger load factor increasing by 75 percent during January and February 2014.

"It means that the presence of Garuda has increased the mode of air transportation, and it has given its best possible service to the people in the province," Micky stated.

Earlier, Garuda President Director Emirsyah Satar had expressed the company's readiness to take over the routes of Merpati Nusantara Airlines.

Emir explained that Garuda Indonesia will not serve Merpati's routes with small aircrafts or feeder aircrafts because, unlike Merpati, Garuda does not have smaller aircrafts.

Emir however did not give any confirmation if Garuda that has 3.6 percent shares in Merpati, which is also a state-owned company, will take over Merpati or not.

"Garuda is a public company and so any corporate action must be aimed at increasing Garuda's value. Because we are a public company we have to be open. Until now we have not taken any action. We also have not been offered any," he explained.

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