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Garuda Indonesia, the nation’s flag carrier, said its revenue may rise by 30 percent in 2011, while profit could potentially almost double this year over 2010, a top executive said on Monday.

Emirsyah Satar, the president director of Garuda, said revenue may expand to Rp 26 trillion ($2.9 billion) this year from Rp 19.5 trillion recorded in 2010. Net income could increase to as much as Rp 1 trillion this year from Rp 515.5 billion last year, he said.

The expected earnings exceed the airline’s original forecasts.

“Our 11-month performance shows encouraging results despite global economic uncertainties,” he said. “Domestic demand remained strong, with the airline industry expected to post an 18 percent increase in passengers.”

Jakarta-based Garuda, which made its stock debut early this year, posted a 42 percent increase in revenue to Rp 22.97 trillion in the January-November period from a year earlier.

Net income jumped 124 percent to Rp 725 billion.

“In the first 11 months, Garuda managed to fly 15.45 million passengers, up 36 percent compared to the same period last year. This is twice the growth rate for the industry,” Emirsyah said.

He said Garuda’s profit would be more than Rp 1 trillion if Merpati Nusantara Airlines, an unprofitable state-controlled airline that focuses on domestic routes, were to repay the Rp 225 billion in debt owed to Garuda.

“We know that Merpati is in a difficult position,” he said.

Garuda expects to fly 17 million passengers this year, 13.5 million of whom travel on domestic routes. The company expects a 20 percent increase in the number of passengers in 2012, with the addition of 105 aircraft and an expansion of 16 domestic routes and new routes to Taipei, Tokyo and India, Emirsyah said.

Garuda currently has 88 aircraft.

“With Europe and the United States slowing down, our strategy is to focus on domestic and regional destinations,” he added.

He said the new fleet would boost efficiency, as it will reduce the average age of Garuda’s fleet to 5.8 years from 6.5 years.

Garuda plans to set aside $5.3 billion in capital expenditure from 2011 through 2015.

“We’re expecting to spend Rp 1.4 trillion this year and another $400 million for the leasing of the new planes,” he said.

Elisa Lumbantoruan, Garuda’s finance director, said Garuda was also considering a buyback of some of its shares, but he did not provide further details.

“We have the intention, but we need to wait until February, or 12 months exactly from our IPO. That buyback will also depend on our share price then and further studies,” he said.

As of November, Garuda’s domestic market share rose by 5 percent to 28.3 percent from the same period last year, while its international market share rose by 12 percent to 29.5 percent.

Garuda closed unchanged at Rp 425 on the Indonesia Stock Exchange on Monday. Shares have fallen 31 percent since they first traded 10 months ago.