Errors at Garuda should not be repeated

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – PT Pelita Air Services are said to be replacing PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk which is in debt and involved in a corruption case.

Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Eric Thohir said Pelita Air as a subsidiary of PT Pertamina (Persero) is expected not to repeat the same mistakes as Garuda Indonesia.

“Mistakes that have occurred elsewhere (Garuda Indonesia) must not be repeated here,” he said when releasing Pelita Air’s inaugural flight, Thursday (28/4/2022).

Read also: Erick Thohir asks Pelita Air to be the backbone of domestic flights

He even emphasized that if the directors or employees of Pelita Air in the future make mistakes like Garuda Indonesia, he will take immediate action.

“I will not hesitate if it happens again, I will report it directly,” he said.

Therefore, he asked Pelita Air to be managed properly, transparently, and in accordance with good corporate governance.

Pelita Air was also asked to stay focused on working on domestic flights in Indonesia because he believes it is in this sector that Pelita Air will become a major airline.

“This is an important task, why we gave birth to Pelita, Pelita must be a new paradigm for the Indonesian aviation industry. Pelita must be part of the healthy paradigm of the aircraft industry as well,” he said.

Read also: Pelita Air Officially Serves Regular Flights, Ready to Open Routes to Various Cities

According to Erick, the business potential for domestic flights in Indonesia is very high, so the government wants Pelita Air specifically to become a domestic airline.

“We look at the data before Covid-19, 72 percent of our tourism industry is domestic, 28 percent are international tourists. This means that there is tremendous potential that we BUMN have not focused on,” he said.

Previously, Pelita Air officially served regular flights for the first time by serving the Jakarta route from Terminal III Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Tangerang to I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, Bali.

The first regular flight took off at 09.20 WIB and arrived at 12.10 WITA and the second route with the opposite destination, namely Jakarta – Bali at 14.55 WITA and arrived at 15.45 WIB.

Currently, Pelita Air’s new routes and flight schedules have a frequency of 1 time per day using Airbus A320-200 aircraft.

Read also: Pelita Air Service: Welcome To The Jungle

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