Garuda determined to improve service
By K. Basrie
JAKARTA (JP): Today, state-owned air carrier PT Garuda Indonesia celebrates its 48th anniversary in the midst of endless public complaints, government hopes for better earnings and the airline's desire to go public.
The airline's beginning was marked by the historical maiden commercial flight of the country's first airplane, Dakota RI-001 Seulawah, a DC-3, on Jan. 26, 1949, from Burma (now Myanmmar).
The plane, originally designed for official flights of the late president Sukarno, flew commercially under the initiative of its pilots, who had been stranded in India since December 1948 following Indonesia's post-Independence clash with the colonial Dutch.
The plane was having a complete overhaul at Calcutta's airport when the crew found themselves unable to communicate with their home base in Yogyakarta due to the war.
At that time, the Dutch destroyed Indonesian airports and made all airspace impregnable.
After running out of funds and dreaming of more planes, the pilots and several Indonesian diplomats decided to offer the Seulawah for commercial service.
The crew's request to take part in India's business flights was rejected by that country's government. However, their plea to the Burmese government was accepted.
Under the name of Indonesian Airways, Seulawah and its crew were hired by the Union of Burma Airways for the Burmese military and civilian operation.
The name Seulawah was given to the plane to honor Aceh traders on the northern tip of Sumatra, who -- hand in hand -- raised funds totaling 130,000 Straits dollars and 20 kilograms of gold for the purchase of the used Dakota plane in Singapore.
Seulawah, meaning golden mountain, is the name of a mountain in Aceh.
Garuda today
The plane is now history, but its epic journey inspired Sukarno's cabinet to establish a state-owned commercial airline.
Now, PT Garuda Indonesia is an airline with several subsidiaries in related businesses, such as travel, catering services, airplane maintenance, hotels and transportation.
Garuda currently has a fleet of 60 planes, comprising three Boeing B-747-400 jets, six Boeing B-747-200s, eight B-737-300s, seven B-737-400s, 10 Airbus A-300-600s, nine A-300-B4s, six MD- 11s, six DC-10s, two F-28-4000s and three F-28-3000s.
The airline serves 20 domestic routes, stretching from Aceh in the west to Jayapura in the east, and 35 international destinations, covering major cities in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, America and Australia.
It employs 14,313 people including 679 pilots, 93 flight engineers, 3,058 cabin crew and 3,353 maintenance personnel.
Garuda carries almost six million passengers a year.
In order to be able to make a smooth take-off as a world-class airline and a mega carrier by 2000, Garuda is establishing strategic alliances with other airlines, which are expected to assist Garuda in its commercial operations and strengthen and expand its favorable routes.
The first alliance was signed with KLM in 1994.
"We're now sounding out the possibility of setting up a similar alliance with Northwest Airlines from the United States," said Garuda's president, First Marshal Soepandi.
Late last month, Garuda and Northwest signed a memorandum of understanding designed to lead to an operational and marketing alliance.
If an alliance is formed, Garuda will be able to fly its passengers from Jakarta, for example, to many American cities, instead of only Los Angeles like now. The short flights of Garuda passengers in the United States would be served by Northwest.
"To meet customers' demands, we'll continue to seek additional strategic partners within the next few years under a very vigilant plan," said Soepandi.
Garuda Indonesia's subsidiaries comprise PT Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Garuda Maintenance Facility and PT Aerowisata, which manages nine hotels in major tourist destination areas and runs catering and transportation services.
Based on the government's advice that Garuda concentrate on its core business, the airline has started to sell some of its subsidiaries and its assets as part of its financial restructuring program.
Burdened by hundreds of millions of dollars in liabilities since the late 1980s, the airline is restructuring its marketing, operations and organization in order to revitalize its business.
As a result, Garuda was able to reduce its losses last year by more than 75 percent to a loss of Rp 87.44 billion (US$36.8 million) from Rp 342.79 billion in 1995.
In an interview Thursday prior to its anniversary, Soepandi declared that Garuda projected a profit of Rp 308 billion this year.
If everything goes as planned, Garuda will go public by the end of next year.
"It's indeed difficult work for us," said Soepandi, who has been at the airline's helm for two years.
Soepandi, who is a former adjutant to President Soeharto, may be right. Even though Soepandi and his team have strived for rapid and significant improvement in all divisions of the airline, there are still complaints from dissatisfied passengers about ground staff and cabin crew services.
Passengers never complain about the food, for instance, but mostly about the behavior of staff serving the food, he said.
Some say several of the airline's staff members are rude and have no sense of properly serving individual passengers.
"They are only good to VIPs or wealthy-looking passengers," said a customer.
Complaints
Flight delays are still painfully standard. Worse, an apology to passengers is rare. In many cases, delays are announced only after staff are questioned by passengers.
A couple from Cilegon, West Java, who were traveling from Manado in North Sulawesi late last month said their journey, which should have taken four and a half hours, took over 27 hours. Passengers received no apology from the airline.
Because of the poor attitude of some Garuda personnel, there is a pun about the airline which says that Garuda stands for "Good and Reliable Until Delay is Announced".
The airline pays great attention to all complaints, said Soepandi, 59, who was Garuda's former vice president for human resources development and corporate affairs in 1994.
"We have done a lot of things in the past few years, such as asking all top executives to directly go to the airport to find out about and tackle customers' problems," said Soepandi, who was accompanied by vice presidents for commercial affairs, Sudarso Kaderi Wiryono, operational affairs, Dharmadi, human resources development and corporate affairs, Eko Suwaryo, and financial affairs, Subianto.
As a result, said Dharmadi, a number of Garuda personnel have been chastised or dismissed for poor performance.
During on-the-spot inspections, the executives found poor management in the handling of customers whose flights were delayed.
"Flight delays are problems for many airlines but our management of delays still need improvement," said Dharmadi.
According to Dharmadi, one of the main problems is a lack of capability of reception staff, who wear Garuda uniforms but are hired from another company.
"Sometimes they are not at their booths to help explain flight delays. So, it seems they have no responsibility at all," he said.
Because of the shortcoming, Garuda has decided not to extend its contract with the company this year, he said.
Garuda is still seriously and keenly implementing an "on time performance" program to boost its flight punctuality as part of its customer satisfaction improvement programs, he said.
Dharmadi said that in the past few months, the rate of flight delays has been about 10 percent to 15 percent, the maximum tolerable rate set by the International Air Transport Association.
Since being appointed the airline's chief in January 1995, Soepandi has made remarkable progress in piloting the 48-year-old airline to become more efficient and profitable.
Improving the quality of customer service has top priority in Soepandi's eight-point plan.
He has also cut the number of seats reserved for top executives by 50 percent to lessen bureaucracy. By 2000, Garuda will have only a maximum of 10,000 employees, compared to the present 14,313.
"The reduction of employees will be applied naturally, such as through the pension scheme and punishment," said Eko Suwaryo.
Soepandi's other plans are to ensure efficient operation of haj departures, to improve the quality of human resources, to make sure the fleet meets Garuda's specific network needs, to develop strategic business units and to develop strategic alliances, which in turn could improve profitability.
"With such tough competition worldwide, Garuda must be on the alert in order to reach its goals," Soepandi said.
For that purpose, Garuda's district managers from all over the world were recently flown to Jakarta to visit its Duri Kosambi training department office to further discuss methods and collect fresh ideas on how to build a strong Garuda.
"Without customer satisfaction and better management, investors might not want to buy our shares later," said Soepandi.