I

don'€™t see why you needed to crow about your experiences and time under former president Abdurrahman '€œGus Dur'€ Wahid on the first day of your new job. It'€™s history. During that time, Garuda was under bad management, used poor marketing strategies, granted discounts galore to civil servants, members of the House of Representatives and their families, oil prices were high '€” all of which pointed to expected losses at year-end.

Garuda'€™s fleet was unimpressive, to say the least, until the last few years when its planes and crew won international recognition from Skytrax of the UK in 2014.

Next, you were quoted as saying: '€œThe international routes planned by the carrier are unprofitable. Airlines in Southeast Asia that offer similar routes, like the Singapore Airlines (SIA), have poor financial performance.'€ This is entirely wrong. What are your supporting facts and figures? Ask some renowned travel agents and they will confirm that SIA has maintained its high load factors to European destinations until today.

Finally, whether you stick to Boeing or Airbus, State Enterprises Minister Rini Soermano is doing the best as she can by seeing and envisaging that there are massive inbound tour groups from Australia, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia visiting Bali in the years ahead '€” not forgetting incoming tourists from other countries who enjoy visa free waivers. She is looking at the big tourist dollars for Bali and other local destinations too.

Tourism Ministry data shows that following the approval granted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for direct flights connecting Guangzhou in China and Denpasar, some 9.4 million foreign visitors, of whom nearly 1 million were Chinese, traveled to Indonesia in 2014.

The Bali provincial administration aims to attract 4 million foreign tourists this year and anticipates considerable growth following the government'€™s policy to waive visa requirements for visitors from China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.  

So, Pak Rizal, you should read more, keep up with the times before you make any statements or comments because you are now a public figure.

Now, does Garuda need to buy some more planes or not?

Luwanto
Jakarta