Airlines tussle in services dogfight

Airlines tussle in services dogfight

To celebrate the 48th anniversary of the country's flag
carrier, Garuda Indonesia, which falls today, The Jakarta Post
investigated airline service. The focus is on Garuda but other
airlines are also covered. The stories are written by Johannes
Simbolon, Lukman Natanegara, K. Basrie, Christiani S.A. Tumelap,
A. Junaidi, Buni Yani and IGN Oka Budhi Yogaswara

JAKARTA (JP): Imagine you are traveling on a long-haul flight
from Jakarta to London and no food is served and no in-flight
entertainment is provided.

After stopping over at Kuala Lumpur, or somewhere else in the
region, the next leg of the journey is as boring as hell.

For more than ten hours, all you can see are other bored
passengers and the clouds or darkness outside. You could kill
some of the time by thinking how beautiful London is but bad
thoughts may also spring to mind, such as will the plane plunge
out of the sky or be hijacked?

The reality is very different. No airline likes to make long-
haul flights a nightmare; indeed they go out of their to make
travelers feel at home, relaxed, secure and happy before, during
and after the flight.

And the competition is getting tougher and tougher.

Last year British Airways introduced a new seat design for its
first class cabin to lure the super-rich customers. The capsule-
like seat can be changed into a bed at the press of a button,
enabling passengers to sleep as comfortably as at home.

Reports say the company spent 115 million, a quarter of its
latest annual after-tax profit, to renovate all its first class
facilities.

Ansett Australia, which began flight to Jakarta last year,
tried to lure passengers by keeping all its flights smoking-free
and serving a variety of lavish food and drinks.

From last week frequent travelers also had the opportunity to
have a hand, neck and back massage by a qualified masseur in its
lounge.

"Business life and stress go together, making the idea of a
massage service available for business travelers seem logical,"
company service and standards coordinator Kathy Rodwell said.

Singapore Airlines is meanwhile still developing its in-flight
entertainment, known as KrisWorld.

"We are one of the first airlines to offer a comprehensive in-
flight entertainment system," company general manager for
Indonesia Tan Chik Quee claimed in an interview with the The
Jakarta Post.

The entertainment system offers 22 free video channels, dozens
of new movies, news and information channel, and music. Also
available for free are popular Nintendo games like Super Mario
World, Dragon's Eye and F-Zero.

Anyone who wants to make a phone call needs only to slip his
or her credit card into the handset slot to activate the
telephone.

Domestic

How's about Indonesia's domestic airlines though?

While many international airlines are busy applying ever more
sophisticated technology and marketing strategies, domestic
airlines are still facing such basic problems as delayed flights
and curt cabin crew.

Chairman of the Indonesian National Air Carriers Association
Soelarto Hadisoemarto said domestic airlines had two major
weaknesses -- the low rate of on-time flights and the use of
aging fleets.

"On-time schedules are related to management. Many overseas
airlines have successfully limited the rate of delayed and
canceled flights. We also know that foreign airlines operate new
aircraft," he said.

Six airlines offer scheduled flights in Indonesia: Sempati
Air, Garuda Indonesia, Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Mandala
Airlines, Bouraq Airlines and Dirgantara Air Service.

Garuda operates a fleet of 60 aircraft. Of these the only
relatively new ones are three Boeing 747-400s, one Airbus 330-
300, and one MD-11 ER.

Sempati Air operates more than 25 aircraft, including new
Fokker 70s, and Merpati has more than 100, Bouraq with 25 and
Mandala, with 10 airplanes, both use comparatively old aircraft.

The aging fleets are regularly blamed for flight delays.

"I once flew overseas with Garuda from Jakarta. The flight was
delayed for ages because of an engine problem. Then after taking
off, the plane was forced to return to the airport because of
further engine problems," said Babe, an expatriate executive.

Harun Hajadi, president director of Ciputra Group, also blamed
the delays on the poor discipline of the crews.

"I once traveled with Garuda. All the passengers were aboard
but the plane did not move because the pilot had not arrived," he
said.

When asked to comment, Garuda's president Soepandi said that
the airline continuously worked hard to find out and tackle its
customers' complaints, including delayed services.

As a result, the rate of Garuda's flight delays was around 10
to 15 percent in the past few months, said Dharmadi, Garuda's
director for operational affairs.

The maximum tolerable rate set by the International Air
Transport Association is 15 percent.

Soepandi said: "We're still working hard to further reduce the
delays."

Sempati Air, which received management awards for marketing
from Japan Airlines, World's Executive Digest and the Asian
Institute of Management, tried to cure the chronic "delay
disease" by introducing an on-time guarantee voucher system in
1991.

It gave vouchers to passengers for any flights which were
delayed for more than 26 minutes. The airline credited each
minute's delay at Rp 2,000, but the maximum compensation for
passengers for one flight was Rp 120,000, equivalent to 60
minutes. Passengers could use the nonrefundable vouchers to
defray the cost of other Sempati tickets.

The company issued vouchers worth Rp 2.25 billion per month
and received payments with the vouchers of approximately Rp 1
billion a month.

Last March, Sempati dropped the system.

"The measure did not generate an internal self-drive within
the management to offer the public on-time schedules," said the
company's then president Hasan M. Soejono.

One lesson from the experience is that however good the
marketing strategy and product are, the people behind them still
matter most.

"Competition is a fight on many fronts. When we are talking
about competition, it is more than fares and products. It is also
how we produce, how we train people, the culture in the company
and the attitude of your staff. Those things are all part of the
weapons in competition," said Quee.

"All components matter. You can give a good product, but if
the attitude of the staff is not good, passengers will leave
you," he added.

Thirty eight foreign airlines fly to Indonesia and the
government is inviting them to serve more destinations in the
country in anticipation of increased tourist arrivals by 2005.

Last year American aircraft manufacturer McDonnel Douglas
predicted the Asia-Pacific region would become the world's second
largest market for commercial aircraft after the United States in
20 years. Many foreign airlines have anticipated this by buying
new aircraft.

But will the domestic airlines be able to survive the tougher
competition against foreign airlines either at home or abroad?
Only time will tell.