Sempati must be more realistic: Nainggolan

JAKARTA (JP): Private airline PT Sempati Air has to be more realistic and logical to become a profitable company, the airline's outgoing president, Santun Nainggolan, said here yesterday.

Nainggolan said the realistic and logical approach was essential to ensure the airline's ongoing restructuring program would work as expected.

He said Sempati had to make a lot of changes to improve.

"The main thing is how to make Sempati a profitable airline. This includes service, improved efficiency and so on. I believe Sempati will grow, the market is prospective," he said.

As part of the airline's restructuring program, Sempati had to terminate some of its routes as the airline has limited fleet.

"Sempati has no back-up (aircraft). If a plane can't fly, it will hamper the whole network. So we have to terminate some routes. But this is temporary until we have additional fleet. It could take six months, a year or more," he said.

He admitted he would resign as Sempati's president and submitted his resignation mid this month.

"This is for personal reasons and there's no dismissal," he told reporters before launching Sempati's homepage and call center in a ceremony at the Shangri-La hotel.

Nainggolan, who will celebrate his 40th birthday next Tuesday, was considered "unable to perform well in a team" by one of Sempati's owners and commissioners, Hutomo Mandala Putra (Tommy).

"During his (Nainggolan's) management, teamwork did not work well. We have to revise everything," Tommy said.

Nainggolan agreed. "I want to change everything. In terms of experience, I don't have any background in the aviation industry. In some cases, the unsuccessful teamwork might be due to age differences."

Nainggolan was previously a PT Maharani Sekuritas top executive.

He said his successor would be announced Monday.

The successor would have previously worked for other airlines, said Tommy, who is also President Soeharto's youngest son.

Nainggolan was elected Sempati president last November, replacing Hasan M. Soedjono.

Under his short management, Nainggolan arranged a major restructuring plan which cut the number of its employees.

Sempati will terminate in early September almost half of its 29 domestic and regional routes.

The terminations were necessary to stop Sempati from "sinking", Nainggolan once said. (icn)