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Citilink to receive A330neos, consider long-haul flights
July 5th 2019
Potential density disadvantage with only 365 seats. Read More »
Garuda Indonesia continues to explore ways to optimise international wide body flying. Most of its three-class 777-300ERs have become two class. Mono-class A330s were introduced.
The next strategy is for group LCC, Citilink, to operate A330neos. It will take two in the second half of the year. Garuda confirmed to Flightglobal the neos would come from Garuda’s order book of 14. It declined to say if it would transfer more than two or have Citilink take any of Garuda’s existing A330-200s and -300s.
Citilink may not gain favourable density advantage or cost differentiation from Garuda. The Citilink neo configuration will have 42 premium economy seats and 323 in economy, a total of 365. This is only marginally higher than Garuda’s mono class A330-300 that seats 360 in a 2-4-2 configuration. If it was a late decision to allocate A330neos to Citilink, penalties may have been too high to change the configuration to a denser version.
Cebu Pacific, AirAsia X and local competitor, Lion Air, have A330s in a 3-3-3 configuration. Lion fits 440 seats into its A330s and Cebu 436 on its A330-300s. The Philippines LCC plans for 460 seats on its A330neos.
Citilink said it could use the aircraft regionally but also long-haul, such as to Frankfurt. Some reports cite CEO Juliandra Nurtjahjo as saying Frankfurt will be served. Other reports say Frankfurt is an example of where Citilink could fly.
Nurtjahjo highlighted Frankfurt is a hub. However, it is a hub for the Lufthansa Group and Star Alliance. Citilink owner Garuda is a member of SkyTeam. Possible Lufthansa-Citilink cooperation seems further unlikely since Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines have a joint-venture.
Local demand between Indonesia and Frankfurt is limited and smaller than Indonesia-The Netherlands. Garuda has struggled to find the right operating model even for its Amsterdam service. The AirAsia X group has wound down Indonesia AirAsia X’s scheduled long-haul flights.
Citilink said it also could use the A330neo to Jeddah.
