Garuda set to employ Air Force pilots
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)