Garuda Indonesia (GA, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) is in talks with BOC Aviation about a lease of one B737-8, Bloomberg reported. If confirmed, the transaction would mark an about-face for the airline, which, on paper, retains an order for forty-nine B737-8s but has long wanted to nix it.
The lessor confirmed it was in talks with the carrier, but Garuda did not respond to ch-aviation's request for comment.
The Indonesian carrier is currently struggling with capacity shortages caused by a double-digit number of its aircraft stuck in maintenance. Garuda reportedly had troubles paying for some of the maintenance, although the carrier denied the claims and attributed the groundings to global, industry-wide supply chain issues.
In June, Garuda secured a USD405 million shareholder loan from Indonesia's recently formed sovereign wealth fund, Danantara (Daya Anagata Nusantara), which holds a 64.5% stake in the airline. The bulk of the loan is earmarked for fleet growth, although primarily targeted at low-cost carrier unit Citilink. Garuda Indonesia Group confirmed in a June 24 stock market filing that up to IDR4.8 trillion Indonesian rupiahs (USD297 million), or over 72%, of the loan will go to the LCC, with the remaining allocated to Garuda Indonesia.
The carrier took delivery of a single B737-8 of its order for 50 units in December 2017, but grounded it after the October 2018 crash of the same aircraft type operated by Lion Air. It never resumed operations with the aircraft and returned it in 2022. The remainder of the order is still on Boeing's books, but Garuda has been vocal about its intention to cancel the deal. Its narrowbody fleet currently comprises forty-five B737-800s.
