Image: Sriwijaya with Garuda logo. Credit: aksi.id
The operational management of Sriwijaya Group, including Nam Air, has been taken over by Garuda Indonesia Group subsidiary, PT Citilink Indonesia. To enhance the operational cooperation, all Sriwijaya Group aircraft will have a Garuda Indonesia logo on their bodies and “Member of Garuda Indonesia” written beside the logo.
Garuda Indonesia Corporate Communication VP, Ikhsan Rosan, confirmed this to tribunnews.com in Denpasar on Sunday. “Yes, it’s true. We will add the Garuda Indonesia logo like we do with Citilink aircraft. We did it to show our operational synergy and the logo will be added below the Sriwijaya Air logo,” he said.
Garuda Indonesia symbols will also be added to the Sriwijaya Air and Nam Air uniforms. “We will add the logo starting from Sunday night and the uniforms will also be similar to Garuda Indonesia uniforms. Sriwijaya Air will hold a press release tonight,” he said yesterday.
The cooperation agreement between the two companies was originally signed on November 9, 2018. Sriwijaya Group CEO, Chandra Lie, said that he was grateful for the cooperation. “We will cooperate with Garuda Indonesia Group to improve, be more modern and sustainable,” he said.
With the new agreement, all of the operational management, including the financial, will be managed under the operational cooperation. “We did it to help Sriwijaya Air meet their commitments and their liabilities to third parties, and some of those third parties are under our Garuda Indonesia Group,” said the PT Garuda Indonesia, Tbk. Persero Head Director, Ari Askhara in Jakarta on Wednesday, November 14, 2018.
The merger was carried out because the Sriwijaya Group had a large liability to Garuda Indonesia Group. Based on the financial report that was submitted by Garuda Indonesia on September 2018, Sriwijaya Air had liabilities worth USD 9.33 million to Garuda Indonesia. The liabilities occurred because they overhauled their ten CFM56-3 engines with Garuda Indonesia and they agreed to install the payment for 36 months.
Previously, they already had other liabilities worth USD 6.28 million and Rp 119.77 billion to Garuda Indonesia, but the liabilities were guaranteed by PT Bank Negara Indonesia, Tbk (BNI) on July 2018 through an Open Account Financing facility. Till now the total Sriwijaya Air liabilities to Garuda Indonesia have reached USD 24.32 million.