Garuda network glitch affects 60 flights

Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia experienced a technical glitch on Monday in its online reservation service that affected 60 flights at Soekarno Hatta International Airport.

“Some 60 flights were affected, including a few to international destinations. The flights were delayed for about 30 to 90 minutes after the online reservation service went down,” Garuda public relations manager Ikhsan Rosan told The Jakarta Post.

“The problem was not Garuda’s [IT] system. It was caused by state telecommunications firm PT Telkom,” he said.

Garuda spokesman Pujobroto said the check-in system had been having trouble since early on Monday morning.

“Our check-in system had been malfunctioning since 1:30 a.m. as the telecommunications system we used was not working. The check-in process that was supposed to be computerized had to be done manually,” he said.

Two flights to Singapore and a flight to Kuala Lumpur were among the flights that were delayed for about one hour.

“There were seven international flights including to Singapore, Perth, Canton, Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong and another 33 domestic flights that were delayed,” Terminal 2 head officer Bob Wahyu told news portal kompas.com.

Iksan said that as of 11 a.m., some 35 flights were delayed. Garuda thought everything had been fixed, however dozens of flights after 11 a.m. were affected by the glitch.

“It’s like a domino effect because when a flight is delayed, it affects the following flight,” he said.

However, the reservation system at other airports such as Juanda in Surabaya, was unaffected, he said.

Iksan said Garuda began managing reservations manually once the glitch was detected, resulting in long queues at the airport.

“Telkom technicians are fixing the network and everything started returning to normal at around 11 a.m.,” he said.

State airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II president director Tri S. Sunoko confirmed that Garuda’s check-in system had been operating normally since 11:05 a.m.

Separately, Telkom corporate communication and affairs head Eddy Kurnia told the Post that the firm was working with the carrier to find the source of the glitch.

“We are still in the process of cross checking with the Garuda Indonesia [IT] team because we have not found any glitches with other airlines today [Monday],” Eddy said.

Last year, Garuda was reprimanded by State Owned Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar for canceling dozens of flights due to a disruption in its IT system.

The airline had to freeze all ticket sales on Nov. 23 and 24 last year to fix its system. (nfo)