T

housands of passengers were stranded amid massive delays and flight cancellations after a fire broke out in a VIP lounge at Soekarno Hatta International Airport'€™s Terminal 2E in Tangerang, Banten, on Sunday.

A spokesperson for national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, M. Ikhsan Rosan, said on Monday that '€œGaruda had canceled 49 flights out of around 176 scheduled flights [...] which affected 3,900 passengers.'€

The cancellations he said, were imposed on flights set to depart on Monday from Jakarta to 15 domestic destinations, including Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, Batam in Riau Islands, Denpasar in Bali, Makassar in South Sulawesi, Surabaya in East Java, and Yogyakarta.

International flights to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore were also canceled.

Disgruntled passengers resorted to social media to vent their anger over the incident, pointing out the lack of crisis management in place for such incidents.

'€œMost passengers were angry because there was no clear explanation on how long the delays would be,'€ a passenger Hanif Syaifullah said on his Twitter account.

Another passenger, Desiree, who was scheduled to fly to Jayapura in Papua from Jakarta on Sunday, shared the sentiment. '€œThere were no officers in the boarding rooms. You could at least have the basic courtesy to let your paying customers know how much time they have to wait for the delay, so they have the choice to reschedule the flight if they wish,'€ she said on her Facebook wall.

After the massive delays and cancellations, Garuda on Monday operated wide-body airplanes, including Airbus 330, Boeing 738NG, Boeing 738NG and Boeing 744 planes, to improve the capacity of its busiest flights, including flights from Jakarta to Batam, Denpasar and Surabaya. Aside from providing extra flights, Garuda also compensated affected passengers by refunding tickets and rescheduling flights.

'€œAs many as 3,300 passengers opted for a refund or a rescheduling,'€ Ikhsan said, adding that as of Monday afternoon, the company had paid up to Rp 300 million (US$22,455) in compensation fees.

He said the airline also provided accommodation near the airport for 600 affected passengers.

Meanwhile, 300 military personnel, including 30 marines and 270 members of the Tangerang Military Command, were deployed to secure the airport on Monday.

'€œIt'€™s a preventive security measure,'€ state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II corporate secretary Agus Haryadi said as quoted by tempo.co.

Separately, Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan called on Angkasa Pura II and airline companies to improve their crisis management.

'€œSome matters need improvement, including management of massive delays. We will ask the airport operator and airlines to improve on their [crisis management],'€ he said after an event at the Presidential Palace in Central Jakarta.

Jonan added that starting on Monday, his office would inspect all commercial outlets at Soekarno-Hatta airport to ensure that they meet the required safety standards.

'€œProbably within the next two or three days, we can finish that and give our recommendations to [Angkasa Pura II], so they can improve [safety standards]. This is important to prevent fire,'€ he said. (alm)