Garuda delays

I nearly fell out of my chair in disbelief reading that "Soepandi told reporters that Garuda had never been involved in delayed flights" (The Jakarta Post, July 19, 1996). To give just a few examples, flight 958 to Manila on Feb. 16, 1996, 436 to Yogyakarta on March 21, 980 to Denpasar on May 16, all left Jakarta around 30 minutes late. Do I assume that Soepandi regards this as on time? Presumably the flight crews did, as there was no apology or explanation for the passengers. It seems that in order to receive such common courtesy, the plane must be at least an hour late, like flight 865 leaving Denpasar on May 19. I doubt if an altogether more recent and tragic flight, 865, left Denpasar on time also.

It would be nice to see the record put straight concerning delayed flights by Garuda. But as their president does not appear to understand the meaning of the word "delayed," we clearly cannot expect correct information from that source.

After the "never delayed" rubbish, we found that 10 percent of flights left over one hour late during a selected period. Far from being committed to improving this sorry state of affairs, Soepandi appears to be satisfied. Does he think the public is satisfied too? I can only imagine that he does, especially after reading Garuda's May in-flight magazine, when he boasts of "one of the most modern fleets in Asia." Airbus A330-300 and MD11ER aircraft are listed, neither of which Garuda operates! Is this a deliberate attempt to deceive or simply carelessness?

As those of us in the real world are aware, Garuda has one of the oldest fleets in Asia, with DC10s, Airbus A300B4s and Boeing 747-200s.

Is Soepandi aware that many, many foreigners here would not dream of flying abroad with Garuda, and some not even domestically? Within Indonesia we have little choice. Not so internationally.

I have traveled in Asia on many of the national flag carriers, and found Garuda the poorest for service, punctuality and aircraft. This is perhaps not surprising with a president so hopelessly complacent and out of touch with his cu

ROBERT WOOD

Jakarta