Garuda Indonesia (GA, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) is considering setting up a joint venture with Air France (AF, Paris CDG) and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL, Amsterdam Schiphol) having signed a Memorandum of Understanding concerning codesharing and engine maintenance last week.
“We will do it step-by-step. It takes roughly two years to plan a joint venture. The earliest would be in 2017,” Suranto Yitnopawiro, the head of Skyteam Alliance & Interline Cooperation management at PT Garuda Indonesia, told the Jakarta Times last week.
While the new agreement pertains to codesharing on flights from Amsterdam Schiphol to Nantes and Paris CDG and from Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta to Singapore Changi and Surabaya, the next step toward a possible joint venture plan, Suranto added, would be to code-share loads on existing flights.
For its part, Air France's senior vice president for the Asia Pacific region, Patrick Roux, highlighted the importance of the agreement adding that the Franco Dutch carrier saw strong potential in the region.
"Southeast Asia is a key region for Air France and KLM … Our future plans for development is definitely focused in the Southeast Asia region,” he said.
In a similar move, Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) and Air China (CA, Beijing Capital) last week signed a Memorandum of Understanding enhancing their own existing commercial partnership. However, Lufthansa CEO, Carsten Spohr, has warned it will take until 2016 at the earliest for the venture to gain the necessary anti-trust approvals ahead of its full implementation.
