Garuda Upgrades Planes, Cuts Travel Time To L.A.

<I>Jakarta</I> - After recently undergoing several upgrades in improvements and service, Garuda Indonesia is looking good.

Although the country's flag carrier has yet to match service levels proffered by regional competitors such as Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines and Thai Airways, Garuda has undergone improvements that should make it much more appealing to North American business travelers.

These changes include new airplanes, a revamped time-saving schedule and greatly improved schedule performance.

In the past few years, Garuda's aging aircraft have been replaced by new Boeing 737s, 747-400s, McDonnell Douglas MD-11s and Airbus A-300s and A-330s-the newest aircraft to come online.

As Garuda's fleet has been upgraded, so has its punctuality in service. Following an intensive restructuring of management, the airline has reached on-time performance levels of 90 percent for departures out of Jakarta.

Garuda admits that these moves were essential if it were to become recognized as a world-class airline, which it hopes to be when the carrier becomes privatized in the next few years. About 25 percent of Garuda's stock will be offered for public sale at the end of 1998, said Ached Subiantio, senior vice president of finance.

Last fall, several task forces were put into place to help the airline significantly improve service, according to executive vice president of operations Captain Dharmadi. "A poor product results in lower revenue, which in turn makes it difficult to improve the product," he said. "This vicious circle has to be broken, so management decided to start improving the product."

Dharmadi said on-time performance was identified as the most serious problem facing the airline; it had fallen well below the international standard of 85 percent.

In addition to concentrating on service improvements, the addition of the new airplanes and enhanced maintenance efforts have created a striking turnaround in a surprisingly short period of time, according to Garuda officials.

For U.S. business travelers, particularly those bound for Jakarta, a more streamlined schedule should improve the airline's appeal. Travel time from Los Angeles has been reduced from 21 to 17 1/2 hours.