Indonesia's major carrier has a history marked by tragedy but it is straightening out its act.
After nine "fatal events" since 1970, culminating in the
2007 Yogyakarta crash that killed 21 and injured many more, Indonesia's
national carrier has refreshed its fleet and is now compliant with
best-practice maintenance and safety standards. Garuda Indonesia has
also overhauled its inflight service in a bid to become one of the best
airlines in the world.
It must be doing something right - the carrier has come
up as best international airline for January 2012 in a recent Roy Morgan
survey of airlines.
It's the latest in a long list of accolades, so Sky
Report decided to do our own survey to see if the punters actually agree
with the press releases.
We took to social media to seek the opinions of recent
Australian Garuda customers. And apart from some minor gripes about
food, the mood was generally very positive.
Each of the respondents (we got about 10 via Twitter and
SourceBottle - we're no Roy Morgan) said they had chosen Garuda on
price. (One got Amsterdam-Sydney for $1000 return.) Several had not
chosen at all - the choice was made by a travel partner. One respondent
wasn't happy at the time, telling Sky Report he said to his wife: "Why
did you book them? They fall out of the sky."
However, he was pleasantly surprised by the experience of flying with them.
None knew of Garuda's hard-targeted transformation drive,
in play since 2008, but each had glowing things to say, ranging from
"the smiling crew was amazing with our 13-month-old baby", to "the
inflight
entertainment was great". Some said the economy cabin appeared
to be roomier than others in which they had flown.
To sum up, one of our respondents, who flew Garuda to
Bali for a conference and "wouldn't have considered booking them
myself", had this to say: "Overall, the experience was so good we've
made a point to rave about it to anyone we know that travels to Bali.
Their service had the effect of breaking the flight up so that when we
arrived we felt fresh and relaxed. It certainly opened my eyes. Watch
out Jetstar; I think Garuda is going to show you the value in treating
passengers as people and not cattle." High praise indeed.
Service, please
This may be old news to some but there is only one public bus that stops within Australia's busiest airport, Sydney.
Sky Report discovered this on a recent trip, when we
walked out the wrong door for the taxi queue and found ourselves at a
bus stop, with only one STA service using it. Fortuitously for us, it
was for the 400 service - which heads to Randwick, where we wished to go
- so we jumped aboard.
But not everyone wants to go to Randwick (or Burwood,
where the bus ends up) and with Sydney Airport passenger movements
expected to reach 50.6 million by 2020 (from exceeding 35.7 million at
present), the one-bus-only situation is a puzzling ineptitude.
Of course, there's a train to Central (expensive) and a
fair few private shuttles (requires some organisation) but if those
aren't ideal for flyers, they certainly don't suit the millions of
commutes a year that airport workers clock up.
"More than 16,000 people from surrounding neighbourhoods
and beyond, employed by hundreds of companies, work at the airport every
day and many of them have no choice but to drive to work," says the
Sydney Airport communications manager, Tracy Ong.
The public transport woes and flow-on traffic congestion
are a key feature in the Joint Study on Aviation Capacity for the Sydney
Region, released last month, which optimistically contains a raft of
recommendations to improve the airport run for everyone.
Much publicised are the Commonwealth and NSW governments'
plans to improve major roads around the airport, as well as a strategy
to encourage rail use by reducing the cost of the train to something
akin to the regular CityRail fare.
But what of those not directly on a train line? Well, the joint study does note the need for new bus services - but only two.
"A significant portion of airport users are from Sydney's
lower north, with a concentration of commuter/staff trips to Sydney
[Kingsford-Smith] Airport from the Sutherland Shire - both areas which
are not currently well served by public transport to the airport," the
report says.
It suggests as a "possibility" the introduction of a St
George-Sutherland bus service largely for airport staff, and a lower
north shore service.
But it also notes the good folk of the leafy lower north aren't exactly great users of public transport.
"While the pool of commuter patronage from the lower
north shore is relatively small to warrant a direct service, a Metrobus
service could provide a direct bus link from the lower north shore to
the airport, also connecting other areas in between," it says.
Confiscation crazy
Next time the guy in front of you in the airport
screening queue is emptying his pockets of coins, keys, money clip and
the remains of his lunch into a plastic tray, spare a thought for your
counterparts in the US and what they get held up behind.
The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
allows its officers a blog and on it, they've itemised some of the
zanier items they have confiscated.
From snakes to stun guns, the TSA sees it all and, according to Reuters, confiscates an average of four pistols a day.
Spear guns are apparently commonly confused for something
that can be carried on. One officer even detected a chainsaw (not
exactly a discreet item), fully fuelled with petrol.
And you thought your can of hairspray was a hazard ...
Route watch
Qantas has ceased flying its own planes between Hong Kong
and London. Qantas fares booked for Australia-Hong Kong-London will now
have the latter leg provided by British Airways.
In the meantime, Hong Kong Airlines has launched a business-class-only service between London and Hong Kong.
The airline is flying one service a day on Airbus A330-200s between Gatwick and Chek Lap Kok.
Reported and advertised fares have been running about a half to a third of the cost of business class on Cathay Pacific.
Source: http://www.smh.com.au