Garuda Indonesia gets $68M loans from Indonesian Eximbank

JAKARTA, Oct 11, 2020, Jakarta Post. Garuda Indonesia, the country’s flag carrier, has secured a Rp 1 trillion, or $68 million, loan facility from the Indonesian Export Financing Agency, or Indonesian Eximbank, to support the airline service export activities, Jakarta Post reported.

Fuad Rizal, Garuda’s director of finance and risk management, said on Friday that the airline received the loan after Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati signed a special export assignment letter for Garuda, as part of the government’s efforts to support the national aviation industry.

“The loan can support the company’s service export activities to increase national economic growth,” Fuad said in a statement. He said Garuda took out the loan with one year tenor.

Garuda and its rival Lion Mentari Airlines, Lion Air, and Indonesia AirAsia have a hard time this year as the Covid-19 pandemic decimated international and domestic air travels.

Data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) showed that domestic airlines only served 21.8 million passengers in the first eight months this year, down 57 percent from 50.3 million in the same period last year. Only 3.5 million passengers arriving from overseas in the period, declining by 72 percent from 12.2 million passengers last year, the data showed.

Garuda reported Rp 10.3 trillion net loss in the January to June period, compared to Rp 337 billion net income in the same period last year. The airline revenue has dropped by 56 percent to Rp 13.1 trillion.

Garuda also reported negative equity of Rp 1.16 trillion at the end of June as the airline’s total liabilities exceeded its total assets, which stood at Rp 147 trillion.