Bond Market News

In the wake of the pandemic, Garuda Indonesia is planning a restructure of its full-service airline fleet that could see the airline slashing its fleet to 70 aircraft from the existing 142. The airline is presently operating only 41 aircraft since most of its fleet remains grounded due to non-payments to its lessors for months. This has resulted in its debt rising by IDR 1tn ($70mn) every month, resulting in an accumulated debt of IDR 70tn ($4.88bn). The company president Setiaputra revealed that the company had negative cash flow and its equity stood at negative IDR 41tn ($2.86bn) while saying that a failure to restructure “could result in an abrupt end of the company”. The company’s passenger volumes had dropped to 66% after the pandemic struck, post which it had furloughed some of its employees and is now contemplating early retirements options. A return to pre-pandemic levels is unlikely in the near future due to the new wave. The pandemic has already forced many airlines to file for bankruptcy including Thai Airways, Latam airlines and Virgin Australia.