Garuda Indonesia (GIA) is the national airline of Indonesia and and is named after the Garuda bird in the myths, and is fully owned by the Indonesian Government. The airline flies to a number of destinations in Asia, Middle East, Europe and Australia. A few years ago it also flew to Vancouver! GIA is listed as a 4-star airline and just got the ‘World’s Most Improved Airline’ a few months ago during the 2010 World Airline Awards.
No, I have no interest in Airline business. The only thing that makes me write about this airline is their professionalism compared to any other airline business in Indonesia that I know. Last week, GIA decided to integrate their operation control system. A little too late for them, but better late than never. Anyway. The transition did not go smoothly; apparently the technician team were a little careless, and they forgot to plug this one cable, which causes the crew rotation system to get lost… with no backup. This caused catastrophe in almost all Indonesian airports, especially the one in Jakarta, and disadvantaged thousands of people. As a result, they have to cancel tens of flights and keep the pilgrim congregation in Mecca for another few days because the flight got delayed for more than a day.
What’s so professional about this? Well, GIA is responsible for all the chaoses they made. They provide accommodations for people affected by this glitch, they refund the ticket and reschedule the tickets. Probably this is the standard for international airlines, but for Indonesian airlines to provide such thing, it’s a miracle, a dream comes true. Anyway, they announced that they are now part of the SkyTeam Alliance Member. Good job, Garuda! Hope your professionalism becomes the standard of all Indonesian airline companies.
