SOUTH-EAST Asia’s budget carrier sector will get more crowded this year-end, when Sriwijaya Air subsidiary NAM Air is projected to begin operations from its base in Indonesia, report local media.
According to The Jakarta Post, the budget airline is in the midst of acquiring an air operator certificate. Its flight permits state that it has been given rights to fly as many as 300 routes both domestic as well as international, including destinations such as Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Singapore.
Sriwijaya Air owner and CEO, Chandra Lie, confirmed in the report that the LCC was expected to take off by end-2013. “We are optimistic that this carrier will be able to start providing its service by the end of 2013, because we are accelerating the whole process. We have mapped out which areas we are going to enter first and we are weighing options on the type of aircraft we plan to use,” he said.
The carrier will begin its first phase of operations with Boeing 737-500s belonging to its parent company, with the aircraft based in Bali and Nusa Tenggara.
Meanwhile, it would continue looking to secure a deal with plane makers to order more aircraft, after a deal between Sriwijaya, NAM Air and Embraer fell through last year, said the same Jakarta Post article.
