Punctuality essential

Punctuality essential

We have had to travel a number of times recently on
Indonesia's internal air services to Bali, Semarang, Medan,
Lombok and Surabaya, for example. Very few of these flights were
on time.

Recently, we flew to Pontianak, and Merpati managed to be late
on both legs of the round trip, including a delay of more than
two hours on the return flight.

Indonesia is a huge and naturally rich country, rapidly
earning its place among the other Asian Tigers as a modern
economic power. It is just not appropriate that its domestic
airlines should provide the kind of service that may be
encountered in the Third World.

Seriously, contempt for punctuality is the hallmark of a
society that has never been anywhere, is not going anywhere and
doesn't have much on its mind in the meantime. That is not
Indonesia. If an airline cannot perform to acceptable industry
standards, the government should penalize it.

BENJAMIN N. BROWN

Jakarta