TransNusa (8B, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) has deferred the launch of its scheduled operations to October 2022 as the delivery of its two A320-200s has been delayed for reasons beyond its control, Managing Director Bayu Sutanto told Smart Aviation Asia-Pacific.
The Indonesian carrier took delivery of its first A320-200N in late 2021 on lease from its minority shareholder CALC. It planned to add two A320ceo in May 2022 in order to upgrade its certificate to include large-scale scheduled operations and launch in July 2022. However, neither of the two jets has been delivered so far while the A320neo has been parked at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta airport since early February after a limited number of proving flights to Denpasar, Surabaya, Kupang, and Yogyakarta International.
Bayu said the first A320-200 is now slated to deliver later this month and the other in mid-September 2022. Both aircraft will be leased from CALC. In the face of the delay, the airline's main focus is now on securing its expanded AOC as soon as possible.
TransNusa is sticking to its plan to become the first foreign operator of the Chinese ARJ21-700 regional jet, of which it has thirty on order via CALC. However, Bayu said the timeline for the induction of the COMAC jets would only be finalised once the airline upgrades its operations specifications and inducts all three Airbus aircraft.
The airline is currently dormant. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it operated charter and scheduled passenger flights focused on eastern Indonesia with a fleet of ATR - Avions de Transport Régional turboprops, all of which were returned to their lessors during the crisis. Currently, its only aircraft is an inactive BAe 146-100.
