Curing Garuda's loss-making service<\/p>\n
When Garuda used to fly to Europe, it was always my airline of
\nchoice for London, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, as I greatly prefer
\nAsian airlines over European ones (Garuda sees continuing trend
\nin rising losses, The Jakarta Post, July 5).<\/p>\n
It was convenient and direct, business class was reasonably
\npriced, food and service was excellent and punctuality was good,
\nhowever despite always having to take my chances on a waiting
\nlist for several months until the day of departure, flights were
\ninvariably half empty.<\/p>\n
This made no sense, but as no airline can survive flying half
\nempty for long, Garuda consequently stopped flying these \"loss-
\nmaking\" routes in 2003. So how do airlines like Singapore Air
\ncontinue to fly these routes and report record profits, despite
\ncurrent oil prices?<\/p>\n
The reason for the long wait lists and half empty planes was
\nGaruda's policy of treating provisional bookings as confirmed.
\nPeople would therefore book five or six flights and then either
\nnot travel at all, or only select and pay for the most convenient
\none at the last moment, leaving four or five empty seats on other
\nflights for which Garuda had refused genuine bookings.<\/p>\n
Customers on the wait list had, in the meantime, given up and
\nbooked with alternative airlines, hence the many empty seats.
\nThis practice loses a great many potential repeat customers and
\nis commercial suicide.<\/p>\n
The solution to this is not to cut back on core business
\n(taking people to where they want to go) as Garuda has done, but
\nto restore all flights to Europe, place a 3-day payment time
\nlimit on provisional bookings and give priority to customers
\nwanting to book and pay up front. By adopting these simple
\nmeasures Garuda can get back to profitable flying and fill a huge
\ngap in the market for direct non-European flights from Jakarta to
\nEurope.<\/p>\n
DAVID J C COOK, Jakarta<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/curing-garudas-loss-making-service-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }