Indonesia's biggest carrier PT Garuda Indonesia cancels 49 Boeing 737 Max 8 orders after crashes

JAKARTA, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's biggest airliner, PT Garuda Indonesia, has canceled orders of 49 Boeing 737 Max 8 jet planes in the wake of two crashes involving similar types of planes in Indonesia and Ethiopia in less than six months, the firm said here on Friday.

Chief Executive Officer of PT Garuda Indonesia I Gusti Ngurah Askhara Danadiputra said that the trust of passengers on Boeing 737 Max 8 planes has been undermined following the crash of the similar plane type from the Ethiopian Airlines earlier this month that killed all the 157 people on board and another crash of the similar plane type from Indonesia's Lion Air in October 2018 that also killed all the 189 people on board.

"The passengers have lost confidence (in the planes). The passengers will not like to travel with Boeing 737 Max 8 planes again," he asserted.

Under the situation, the CEO said that the firm would not take risks which may drive down the number of passengers and erode the revenues of the company.

"Despite it (Boeing) having carried out improvement, the trust of passengers has been lost. We asked for the cancellation of the orders of 49 planes."

Indonesia's state-owned carrier PT Garuda Indonesia had ordered 50 Boeing 737 Max 8 jet planes, with one of them already arrived in the country, the firm said.

The Indonesian transport ministry has ordered to ground all such types of jet planes after the two crashes.