The minister said the situation remained under control. "There has not been any piling up of passengers as I imagined before. There has not been long queues at check-in counters," he said.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - State Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar said PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk`s air transportation services had remained at normal standard level despite a strike by some of the airline`s pilots.

"Delays indeed did occur but on the whole flights remained smooth and there were no cancellations," he said when inspecting Terminal 2 of Jakarta`s Soekarno-Hatta airport in Cengkareng on Thursday.

The minister said the situation remained under control. "There has not been any piling up of passengers as I imagined before. There has not been long queues at check-in counters," he said.

A number of Garuda pilots began conducting a strike as of 00.00 hours on Thursday and stopped flying from Jakarta to several regions in the country to demand a pay rise to equal that of foreign pilots contracted by the company.

The president of the Association of Garuda Pilots, Stephanus Geraldus Rahadi, however halted the strike at 1pm on Thursday after an agreement was reached with the management with regard to the settlement of the dispute.

After inspecting the Garuda flight facilities minister Mustafa asked the Garuda management to make various improvements in the field of service.

"There were adjustments of the schedule because of the strike but this may not be tolerated," he said.

In view of that the dispute between the pilots and the management must be settled immediately.

"There must be a win-win solution and efforts must be made by Garuda to assure that customers are not hurt," he said.

Garuda spokesman Pudjobroto meanwhile admitted that the strike had affected flight service especially in the afternoon.

"All Garuda flights from Jakarta to several regions including overseas regions from late at night to the morning were normal," he said.

He said Garuda had prepared around 130 pilots in anticipation of the strike. "They include senior pilots and instructors," he said.

He said a day before the management had identified the pilots that would not fly on Thursday "so that the impact could be minimized."

Pudjobroto said until 1pm on Thursday Garuda flights from Jakarta reached 66.

"We recorded delays in departures were around 10 percent," he said.

He said several routes with close schedules were merged and served by wide-bodied Airbus so that two flights could be served by one Airbus.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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