Indonesia to Reduce Boeing 737-200 Fleet

Indonesia will gradually reduce the number of its B737-200 planes in tandem with the government’s commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 26 percent in 2020, a minister said.

“Although we now only have 13 B737-200s, their number will naturally decline,” Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said after opening the general meeting of the Indonesia National Air Carrier Association (Inaca) here on Friday.

The meeting was themed “New Approach Toward Green Aviation”. Freddy did not decline a statement that B737-200s were fuel-wasting and had a high noise level so that they were not environment-friendly.

In fact, the planes had been banned from flying to and from  Singapore’s Changi Airport for a long time.  As the number of B737-200s was relatively small they were not significant enough to affect efforts to improve air quality, he said. “There are only 10 B737-200s now. That’s not significant. But we are committed to conducting the go green movement gradually.”

Therefore, the minister said he supported the effort made by national airline companies to add bio-fuel by as much as 5 percent to aviation turbine fuel since 2009.  “That’s one of our commitments,” he said.

Sriwijaya Air Commercial Director Toto Nursatyo said as one of scheduled airlines operating B737-200s in the country, Sriwijaya Air was ready to stop operating the planes. “We are ready to ground them if there is a new government regulation banning this type of plane,” he said.

The existing regulation still allowed airline companies to operate this type of plane.  After all, he added Sriwijaya Air planned to gradually take B737-200s out of its fleet starting next year.