Sempati Air

During our flight to Pekanbaru with Sempati Air on Aug. 27, a colleague and I read a message by the company's president director that they hoped to have ISO9002 accreditation by the end of this year.

The service on the flight was good and the airplane left and arrived on schedule.

From the site we were visiting, we telephoned the Sempati office to confirm our return flight on the same day. This was later confirmed when we checked in at the Gold Class lounge for a 5:50 p.m. departure.

As it transpired an office staff member, and others subsequently, were being, shall we say, economical with the truth. Departure was over three and a half hours late. Until then little information was provided and unlike other national and international airlines no food or other service was available.

I counted five different reasons being given for the delay, all of which contradicted each other. On the flight the food was less than lukewarm and inedible.

Part of the requirement of ISO9002 is a need for providing good communications and passenger comfort. This was certainly lacking and Sempati would have failed the audit for this flight on both ground and in-flight service. There was not even an apology.

Initially I put the lack of communication down to possible lack of training of the local staff and wrote to the president director of Sempati Air about the poor service on my return flight. The lack of communication seems to stem from the top as I have not received a reply.

If this is the way Sempati Air continues to treat passengers, they will have to wait until the next century before they receive ISO9002 accreditation.

RONNIE MCCRACKEN

Jakarta