Citilink (QG, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) is planning to venture into the longhaul market segment with the arrival of two A330neo in the final quarter of the year.

Airline President Director Juliandra Nurtjahjo told Indonesia's Investor Daily newspaper that the carrier would induct two A330-900s in October and December of this year. Though he did not mention where the jets would be sourced from, it is recalled that parent carrier Garuda Indonesia (GA, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) has 14 of the type on order from Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) with deliveries scheduled to run from 2019 through to 2022.

According to Nurtjahjo, Citilink is looking at using the first A330neo to serve Frankfurt International, Germany starting in October 2019 while the second A330neo will be used to open up flights to Jeddah International in December.

"Our layout will provide a premium economy of 42 seats and an economy class of 323 seats. The premium economy will be part of the LCC model, but with higher fares, especially for inflight comfort," he added.

On the regional front, the executive said Citilink is looking at opening up new routes to cities in Australia and Vietnam.

At present, Citilink operates forty-three A320ceo, eight A320neo, and four ATR72-600s on scheduled flights throughout Indonesia as well as to East Timor, China, Malaysia, and Cambodia. It previously operated to Jeddah with technical stops using its A320s.