GARUDA Indonesia’s LCC subsidiary, Citilink, is one step closer to being spinned off from its parent airline (TTG Asia e-Daily, August 4, 2011), having been granted a scheduled commercial airline license by Indonesia’s Ministry of Transportation.

Citilink is expected to receive its Air Operator Certificate (AOC) within the next three months, which will enable the carrier to operate independently of Garuda.

Garuda's strategic business unit Citilink vice president, Elisa Lumbantoruan, said in a media statement: “With the issuance of the license and the AOC, Citilink will officially operate independently from Garuda.”

“This also means that Citilink will have to take various business expansions and actively participate in the national airline market,” he added.

Citilink currently operates a mix of nine Boeing 737-300 and Airbus 320 aircraft to provide connections between Jakarta, Surabaya, Denpasar, Batam, Balikpapan, Banjarmasin, Makassar and Medan.

As part of its expansion strategy, Citilink will operate a fleet consisting of one B737-400, six B737-300s and 13 A320s by year-end. The airline is scheduled to receive 25 new A320s between 2014 and 2018.

Meanwhile, new destinations earmarked for the year include Jogjakarta, Padang and Pekanbaru.