Batavia Air responds

With regard to the letter from Clement Weather to The Jakarta Post concerning an incident that took place at the airport in Batam, and a copy of which was delivered to Batavia Air for comment, we would like to clarify as follows.

The following chronological details of the event were provided by our representative technician, who happened to be at the airport ticket sales counter in Batam.

His report said: "On Nov. 13, all Batavia Air employees on duty were at the airport check-in counter. Only one person was at the ticket sales office. At that very moment, the computer was down (no connection to the reservation system).

The officer available was attending two customers who had made reservations by phone. Then a husband and wife came over. The wife, who was Indonesian, inquired about the ticket price to Jakarta. Before her question had been answered, the lady turned to me and asked the same question.

I said I was not in a position to inform her about ticketing. But she insisted that she wanted to know the approximate price.

I asked her to wait. After some time I managed to find the price list on the table. I showed it to the couple.

All of a sudden, the husband , who was a foreigner, grabbed my ID card and kept scolding me using abusive words.

I said, "What seems to be the problem, sir?"

The gentleman appeared emotional. I apologized and left him. The couple went away, too."

Given this description of what transpired, there is no relevance in linking the presence of our technician at the check-in counter with the recent case of aviation fuel contamination, as Clement Weather sought to do. In fact, the aviation fuel case is currently being dealt with by the relevant authorities.

EDDY HARYANTO, Manager customer Service & PR, Batavia Air Jakarta