Citilink Aims for Higher Revenue Growth
Jakarta. Citilink, the low-cost unit of national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, is gearing up to boost its revenue growth by half this year in a bid to book positive profit growth.
The airline aims for revenue of between $550 million and $600 million this year, compared with last year’s unaudited figure of $400 million, on the back of increasing passenger demand in the low-cost market, according to Citilink’s newly appointed chief executive Albert Burhan.
Citilink has been posting losses since it was first established in 2011 amid tight competition among the region’s budget carriers.
Despite that fact, Albert is more upbeat this year, noting that the airline is already working on increasing its capacity to lure more passengers by adding more routes and increasing flight frequencies with the support of five new Airbus A320 aircraft.
“Citilink’s performance will improve as it has continued to improve every year, including financially... One milestone for this year will be to boost growth and book a profit,” Albert said at a press conference in Jakarta on Monday.
“We aim to become a half-billion [dollar] company this year,” he added.
Citilink is targeting up to 11.2 million passengers this year, up 44 percent from last year’s 7.8 million. The carrier is also boosting its flight frequency by roughly 33 percent, the chief executive said.
“Right now, we have about 180 flights daily. With the five new A320 aircraft, we should be able to add around 50 to 60 more flights this year,” Albert said.
Citilink will also be hedging its jet-fuel expenses in the beginning of the year in another attempt to reach profitability, he said.
“The outlook for the rupiah is still weak this year. Since 100 percent of our revenue is in rupiah and 70 percent of our expenses is in dollar, we’re quite exposed,” the chief executive said.
“Jet-fuel prices are still relatively stable right now, but we will start to hedge it gradually,” he added.
Although the rupiah strengthened slightly to 12,813 to the dollar on Monday from 12,849 on Friday, it has depreciated by 3 percent so far this year, according to data from Bank Indonesia.
GlobeAsia
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