Feud between NAC and Garuda Indonesia escalates

Garuda has decided, unilaterally, to cancel the lease-agreements with Nordic Aviation Capital for twelve CRJ1000s. Both companies have been in discussions about the aircraft since mid-2020, but weren't able to reach a deal. NAC has  said that it doesn't accept the termination and that the lease-agreement is still in full effect.

The selection of the CRJ1000s, of which Garuda has total fleet of eighteen aircraft (six more leased through Export Development Canada), has been under discussion and legal investigation for quite a while. Last November, the UK Serious Fraud Office announced it was investigating potential fraud between (former) Garuda and Bombardier-executives during the selection process and the airline has always been unhappy with the type due to its limited cargo-carrying capacity.

Originally, the lease-agreement with NAC would run until 2027. The lease-agreement for the six with EDC would run until 2024 after which Garuda would take ownership of these aircraft. Both companies are currently still in negotiations about the aircraft, but Garuda has already announced it wants to phase-out all of its regional aircraft which also includes twelve ATR72s as part of its post-COVID strategy.

Currently, only two of the eighteen CRJ1000s are in use (PK-GRM and -GRN), while the rest is parked at various Indonesian airports like Denpaser and Jakarta.

Photo by Leslie Snelleman, kindly provided by AirHistory.net