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Garuda Indonesia plans to fly 68 additional aircraft in the next four years, bringing its fleet to 154, as it seeks to more than double passenger numbers and expand its low-cost carrier business, the airline said on Monday.

The plan requires a $6.5 billion investment, of which $5.2 billion will relate to aircraft leases, said Emirsyah Satar, the airline’s chief executive.

Garuda is aiming to carry 35 million passengers in 2015, he said. The airline carried 13 million passengers and more than 200,000 tons of cargo last year with its fleet of 86 planes. It flies between 32 domestic destinations and 18 international sites.

“This plan also includes a strategy to improve our ratings to five-star in service excellence by 2014,” Emirsyah said in a visit to the headquarters of Berita Satu Media Holdings on Monday. Berita Satu is the parent company of the Jakarta Globe.

Emirsyah said Garuda planned to increase low-cost carrier unit Citilink’s contribution to Garuda’s total revenue to almost 30 percent in 2015 from single-digit now. Citilink is competing with other low-cost carriers, including Lion Air, and AirAsia of Malaysia.

The airline posted a Rp 186 billion loss in the first half of the year, with rising operating costs, including for fuel and personnel, blamed for the loss.

“Fuel price volatility remains a significant risk to the year-end results,” Emirsyah said. He said he was optimistic second half performance would improve on the first half, but declined to say whether Garuda expected a profit.

On the latest deal, Emirsyah did not identify from whom it would lease the aircraft.

“That $6.5 billion is a cumulative figure that we need in the period from 2011 to 2015. As we decided to use aircraft from lessors, most of the investment for aircraft procurements would come from the lessors,” said Elisa Lumbantoruan, the company’s chief finance officer, who joined Emirsyah on the visit.

Garuda is required to spend $1.3 billion on a security deposit to secure some of the aircraft ordered, as well as developing supporting infrastructure.

Elisa said $350 billion of the funding needs for the next four years would come from the Rp 4.8 trillion ($566 million at the current rate) in proceeds from its initial public offering in February.

“As for the remainder, we are optimistic we can get it from our operating cash flow,” Elisa said.

He said the airline encouraged customers to book tickets directly from the airline rather than via travel agents, giving it a more sustainable source of revenue.