M&A: Qantas to acquire 20% of Adam Air

Indonesia's regional airline Adam Air, owned by Suherman Family, is considering selling about 20 percent of its shares to Australia's Qantas in a bid to create mutual benefits for both airlines, newspapers reported today.

PT Adam SkyConnection Airlines, an Indonesian budget carrier, aims to double its fleet as it plans to fly to international destinations such as Singapore and Australia. Adam Air is owned by Gunawan Suherman Family, Agung Laksono (House of Representative Speaker), and Mrs Sandra Ang.

Adam is run by the family with Gunawan as CEO, Adam Aditya Suherman (24 years old) as president director, and Yundhi Suherman as Chief Commercial Officer with two professionals with experience in Garuda Indonesia, the country's flag carrier. Dave Laksono (son of Agung Laksono, also a Golkar Party executive) is the vice president director of Adam.

The carrier currently has 19 Boeing 737 in its fleet and plans to add eight more aircraft this year.

Adam intends to seek a listing in Singapore sometime in 2007 or 2008 after making the city-state a second hub for its operations

The plans are ambitious but Adam Air, which started commercial flights in December 2003, has shown that it's capable. While budget airlines, which are closest in style too Adam Air's business model, take around three years to just break-even, Adam claimed it has turned in a profit in its first year.

Adam Aditya once said that he was inspired by US low-cost carrier South West while he stay in Santa Monica, California.

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