Garuda set to employ Air Force pilots
JAKARTA (JP): Garuda Indonesia will hire 14 air force first officers to work as co-pilots on some of its B-737 flights, the national flag carrier disclosed recently.
The reinforcement is linked to Garuda's plan to reintroduce a number of domestic services, according to a statement released by Garuda's Public Relations Division.
The agreement to hire the co-pilots was signed at the air force's headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta, on Friday.
Garuda plans to revive some domestic services which it earlier gave to subsidiary Merpati Nusantara Airlines in order to concentrate more fully on international flights.
In July, Garuda recommenced servicing three old routes: Jakarta-Palembang, Jakarta-Padang and Jakarta-Banjarmasin.
Now the airline plans to resume 11 more services: Jakarta- Pekanbaru, Jakarta-Pontianak, Jakarta-Semarang, Surabaya-Batam, Surabaya-Ampenan, Surabaya-Balikpapan, Denpasar-Solo, Denpasar- Batam, Denpasar-Manado, Medan-Ujungpandang and Balikpapan- Pontianak.
The resumption of these services is to meet the demand of Garuda's passengers for convenient connections with the airline's international services, the statement said.
Garuda currently has 637 pilots, comprised of 380 captains and 257 first officers.
Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto acknowledged last week that, because of a shortage of pilots -- not only in Indonesia but also worldwide -- Indonesia has lost between 40 and 50 pilots to foreign airlines, including Eva Air, Korea Airlines and Malaysia Airlines, Antara reported.
Haryanto said the government is currently expanding facilities at the Curug Flying School in Tangerang.
He estimated that, while the school currently graduates 60 pilots each year, it will be able to graduate between 120 and 200 new pilots each year before the end of the century.
He said the school is planning to acquire 70 new training planes, consisting of TB-10s, TBN-700s, Baron B58s and MD-3s.
The total cost of the new planes is about $60 million. The purchase has already been proposed to the coordinating minister for economy and finance, Haryanto said. (emb)