Cathay Pacific apologizes

I refer to Ibu Tyas Harjanti's letter Cathay Pacific's service (The Jakarta Post, Jan. 10).

First of all we like to extend our apologies to Ibu Harjanti for any inconvenience that happened to her daughter as a result of delayed baggage when she arrived in Beijing on Dec. 12, 2001.

On Dec. 12, our airport staff found an untagged bag in the baggage loading area. This bag was brought to the boarding gate for identification by passengers on that morning's flight but was unclaimed. For safety and security reasons, the bag was therefore held in the lost and found storage. The next day, on Dec. 13, our staff received a message from Beijing that a missing bag had been reported by Ms. Tyas Anasurya Anisha -- Ibu Harjanti's daughter -- which was actually the bag that we had found.

Since our morning flight had already departed, the bag was sent to Beijing via our morning flight the following day on Dec. 14 that connected through Hong Kong with the KA904 flight to Beijing. We didn't send the bag by our afternoon flight on Dec. 13 as there was no direct same day connection to Beijing and the bag would have had to overnight in Hong Kong without its owner, which would have increased the chance of it being further mislaid. This is standard airline practice.

Ibu Harjanti's daughter's baggage was delivered to Beijing on Dec. 14. Cathay Pacific gave a generous allowance to cover essential purchases during the 48 hours that the baggage was delayed, and we remained in contact with both Ibu Harjanti and her daughter throughout the time from Dec. 12 and Dec. 20.

JAMES GINNS

Country Manager Indonesia

Jakarta