Indonesian flagship carrier Garuda Indonesia swings to profit in 2015

Indonesia's state carrier Garuda Indonesia swung to a profit last year as the airline reduced its operating expenses amid declining revenue.

Garuda posted a net income of 1.075 trillion rupiah (about 77.98 million U.S. dollars) in 2015, compared to the 368.91 million U.S. dollars loss it recorded in the preciois year, the airline said in a statement to Indonesia's Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

The airline raised 3.814 billion U.S. dollars of revenues last year, or 3.01 percent lower than 3.933 billion U.S. dollars reaped a year earlier.

Meanwhile, its operational spending last year dropped to 3.731 billion U.S. dollars from 4.292 billion U.S. dollars in 2014.

The country's biggest airline also reported to have increased its assets to 3.310 billion U.S. dollars last year, or 6.32 percent higher than 3.113 billion U.S. dollars from a year earlier.

Garuda Indonesia President Director Arif Wibowo said that the firm would improve its performance by enhancing the values of its subsidiary firms, either as individual firm or as a group of business.

"We have other powers besides Garuda which is the core of our airlines business. We also plan to expand our international services. We learned that our subsidiaries are in healthy conditions," Arif said.

As of October 2015, Garuda group accounted for 44 percent of domestic flights, up from 38 percent a year ago. Its international flights also captured 27 percent of the market, increasing from 23 percent a year earlier.

According to Arif, all of its subsidiaries that comprised of Citilink budget airlines, Aero Wisata and Gapura Angkasa also posted profits in their operations throughout last year.

Garuda Indonesia operates 143 commercial turbo propeller and jet planes and is now expecting the deliveries of 75 planes it ordered from several plane makers in the world. Enditem