GARUDA INDONESIA expects 10% rise in passenger numbers

PT Garuda Indonesia Airlines Limited (GIAA) targeting an increase in passenger numbers by 10% in the second quarter compared to first quarter 2012 of 4.6 million passengers. While the first quarter of 2011 compared with year-on-year (yoy), there will be an increase of 20%.

"For the next quarters, the relative has the same growth," said Elisa Lumbantoruan, Director of Marketing and Sales PT Garuda Indonesia.

According to Elisa, the increase was due the addition of the aircraft that carried out by PT Garuda Indonesia. The company will operate 194 aircraft in 2015. On the other hand, the company is also to increase the utilization of operational aircraft. "Now we have 92 aircraft," he said.

Flight to Jakarta-Taipei route, added Elisa, PT Garuda Indonesia passengers projected occupancy rate (load factor) of 70%. With daily flights (daily flight) or seven times a week. "The reason to reopen, we see the traffic from the airline China Airlines and EVA Air up to 110 flights per week from Taipei to Indonesia," she said.

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LION AIR passenger numbers in the first quarter rose 10%

Indonesia national airline PT Lion Mentari Airlines or Lion Air successful a growing number of passengers during the first quarter of this year. The number of airline passengers increased by 10% over the same quarter last year.

General Director of Lion Air, Edward Sirait explain the increase in passenger numbers due to the revitalization of the fleet is carried out by the company. In addition, Lion Air also made additional flight frequencies on domestic routes.

In the first quarter of this year, Lion Air recorded an increase of about 800,000 passengers, up 10% over the same quarter last year amounted to 7.2 million passengers.

"Of the eight million passengers, mostly from domestic flights is 98% or 7,840,000 passengers, while the rest coming from international flight around 160,000 passengers," said Edward. 

Edward said that most domestic routes is Jakarta-Medan route. This route has 20 times flights per day. The load factor for the Jakarta-Medan route stable at 82.5%. While on international routes, the airline is still concentrating on the route from Jakarta to Singapore, Jakarta to Jeddah and Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur.

Although there is the addition of 10% the number of passengers in the first quarter of 2012, but he was pessimistic until the end of this year could raise the overall airline passenger numbers up 10%. Edward argued, the month of July, after the September school holidays and after the Eid holidays are the low season.

Last year, Lion Air transport 24.97 million domestic passengers in 2011, or approximately 41.59% of total domestic passengers nationwide. Edward says, the flight routes which opened earlier this year was a direct route from Jakarta to Manado since last February 2012. While the end of this month Lion Air will open two direct routes namely Surabaya to Ambon and Surabaya to Palu without transit in Balikpapan.

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Maersk posts a quarterly loss of US$599 million despite 18pc volume rise

DENMARK's AP Moller-Maersk Group has posted its first quarter results, which its container shipping unit Maersk Line suffered US$599 million year-on-year loss despite a 18 per cent growth in volumes.

The carrier said the average freight rate fell nine per cent compared to the same period last year.

Overall, the group delivered a profit of $1.2 billion, drawn on revenues of $14.32 billion, down one per cent year on year. Compared to the same quarter of 2011, it experienced almost zero growth in the first quarter. Excluding divestment gains and one-off tax income from the settlement of an Algerian tax dispute, the group recorded zero profit in the first three months, against a profit of $1.1 billion in the same period of 2011.

Group CEO Nils Andersen said the company is "not satisfied" with its first quarter performance, adding "earnings in shipping were weak due to the continued loss-making rates in the container and tanker markets. However, our efforts to increase container rates are paying off and we will continue our initiatives to improve rates throughout the year.

"We will also maintain a high level of costs for oil exploration and development of discoveries for production. We are confident that these investments will enable us to stop the decline in our oil production and then return to growth towards our target of 400,000 barrels per day."

Looking ahead, Maersk expects the group's year-end 2012 earnings will be slightly lower than the $3.4 billion recorded in 2011. Cash flow used for capital expenditure is expected to remain the same as in 2011.

For container shipping, Maersk Line said it "expects a negative up to neutral result in 2012, based on the assumption that the rate restoration that has taken place since March 2012 will continue."

The Maersk Line projects the global demand for seaborne containers will increase by four to six per cent in 2012, with lower increases on the Asia-Europe trades, but higher increases on the north-south trades.

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MANDALA AIRLINES will focus on international routes

This year, Mandala Airlines will give priority to the opening of the international route rather than opening domestic routes. Currently, Mandala Airlines has been serving local route from Jakarta to Medan and international route Medan – Singapore. On Friday (4/5), Mandala open a new route from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur.

Commissioner of Mandala Airlines, Diono Nurjadin, revealing the opening of new international routes will take priority rather than the opening of domestic routes. This decision is due to competition on international routes for airlines low cost carrier is not too tight as well as in domestic flights. "If domestic is already congested, especially our competitors already have a number of planes a lot, while we had three planes," said Diono.

Another reason why more focus on opening the international routes duet to ticket sales promotion of Mandala Airlines is easier because have a partner with Tiger Airways as one of the shareholders of Mandala Airlines. Diono said with this synergy it is easier to do promotions in overseas passengers since Tiger Airways has been known in Asia. "So we will also use Tiger Airways to link the promotion of Mandala Airlines," he added.

With this strategy, is optimistic his side can continue to increase the number of Mandala Airlines passengers on two international routes and one domestic route. "So with theses three routes, the passenger occupancy target is 80% to 84%," he said.

Regarding the new route from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur is open from Friday, Mandala Airlines will serve with a frequency of 14 flights per week. Expansion about the opening of new routes, Diono explained, that Mandala Airlines will open up international routes provided that the distance of not less than four to five hours. For example, to Hong Kong or India. This year Mandala Airlines will bring 7 new Airbus A320 aircraft. While currently only three aircraft that have been operated.

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China Cosco's loss widens to $428m

China Cosco Holdings’ net loss deepened in the first quarter as the company's dry-bulk business slumped amid a slowdown in the global shipping industry, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The Beijing-based shipping company said its net loss totalled US$428.2 million for the three months ended March 31, according to Chinese accounting standards, compared with a net loss of $79.7 million a year earlier.

Revenue fell 4.6 percent to $2.49 billion from $2.61 billion. The results lend weight to a gloomy outlook for the year made in March by China Cosco chairman Wei Jiafu, who said oversupply and a funding squeeze would continue to dog the global shipping industry.

Wei said at the time that he expected lower rates and the financing squeeze to force weaker competitors to default on their payments or go into bankruptcy.

Pressure has been particularly high on China Cosco's dry-bulk unit, which carries commodities including coal, grain and iron ore. The unit said its first-quarter shipping volume fell 15 percent from a year earlier to 55.6 million metric tonnes.

China Cosco, which has 147 dry-bulk ships under charter and owns 229, last year stopped paying fees on some ships it leased before 2009 from Chinese and Greek ship owners, triggering the seizure of three ships. The company later said it had resumed its payments.

The company said it expects excess shipping capacity to weigh on the dry-bulk unit, forecasting dry-bulk capacity growth of 11 percent this year, higher than an expected four percent rise in demand. China Cosco said that as of March 31 it had orders of 20 dry-bulk cargo vessels totalling 1.9 million deadweight tonnes.

China Cosco's container unit showed a recovery in the first quarter, as shipping volumes rose 20 percent, pushing the unit's revenue up two percent to $1.28 billion. China Cosco, the listed flagship of state-owned China Ocean Shipping (Group), has businesses that include dry-bulk shipping, container shipping, port operations and container construction.

Indonesia bans US beef imports due to mad cow disease in dairy herd

INDONESIA has banned US beef imports because of mad cow disease in one American dairy cow and will not lift the ban until it is assured that the disease has been wiped out, said vice agriculture minister Rusman Heriawan.

"We will lift the ban as soon as the US can assure us its dairy cows are free of mad cow disease. It could be one month or one year. It depends on how long it takes to resolve this case," he told a press briefing.

US Trade Representative Ron Kirk told The Associated Press: "There is no reason to be concerned about the consumption of US beef. We would expect that Indonesia would quickly reopen its market. It [banning] must be done in the context of standards established by the World Health Organization."

The latest US case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy was discovered in a dairy cow scheduled to be slaughtered at a rending plant, where the animal remains are not used as food.

Indonesia is a small market for US beef. In 2011, it purchased beef worth US$879,000. In the first two months of 2012, sales of US beef to Indonesia totaled just $21,000.

Said US Meat Export Federation president Philip Seng: "US beef is safe. We are reaching out to contacts around the world to reassure them that this finding is an indication that the system to safeguard the wholesomeness and safety of US beef is working."

GARUDA INDONESIA will fly to Italy in 2014

President Director of Garuda Indonesia, Emirsyah Satar said Garuda Indonesia is reviewing the opening of flight routes to Italy. If there is no obstacle, Garuda Indonesia plans to fly to Italy on 2014. "Route to Italy the most rapidly will be opened by 2014. There is only one choice, whether Rome or Milan," said Emirsyah.

Emirsyah said, for time being Garuda Indonesia route that have been opened to the European region only Amsterdam, The Netherlands. State-owned airline is still looking at the economic conditions of Europe to add a route to other countries. Garuda Indonesia plans to open a flight route to the five countries, namely the Netherlands, Britain, Germany, Italy and France.

Another consideration is the Garuda Indonesia is still awaiting the arrival of 10 Boeing 777 300 ER. The plan, said Emirsyah, the aircraft began to come next year. "There have been 10 order of Boeing 777 aircraft. Will be empowered to Europe and the Middle East. Direct flight," he added.

Determination of objectives between Rome or Milan will be based on market demand, the city where the most targeted people of Indonesia. "And we see, the Italians whether from Rome or Milan a lot to Indonesia," he continued.

So, he said, opening the route Garuda Indonesia to the number of European countries will not be directly opened simultaneously. The opening of the routethat is closest to London, England. "Not all, gradually. Italy is not the closest. Second is the UK, London town for sure," he added.

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