ER
GARUDA Indonesia President Director Irfan Setiaputra stated that the only parties that could save the national flag carrier from the difficult situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic were passengers.
“I always talk everywhere that can save Garuda from the current situation and as soon as I can recover, it is a passenger,” Irfan said.
In fact, according to Irfan, assistance from the government in the form of loans worth IDR8.5 trillion was not able to cover and survive in the long term. Garuda received a bailout fund with a mandatory convertible bond scheme worth IDR8.5 trillion with a tenor of three years to revive the national airline from a downturn during the pandemic.
“The government, while only helping the funds, will temporarily ensure that the ‘recovery’ Garuda is the passenger who always campaigns,” he noted.
For this reason, he ensures that health protocols are always carried out, especially in aircraft, especially in maintaining the distance applied by emptying the middle seat for economy class and business seats for only one person.
“Garuda is very determined to ensure that the middle seats in the economy class are empty because we don’t want public perception about this trip to be problematic. Middle configuration is empty. Business class that seats two by itself, unless there is a special request that families and their children do not want to be separated, but there is an agreement that must be agreed to make other people safe,” Irfan stated.
In addition, he continued, the aircraft uses High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) technology that can kill viruses up to 99.99% with vertical air circulation.
Irfan said that those who fly now are those with business or business needs, while those who want to fly are still delaying. Those who want this a lot, are eager to fly. Those who want to travel, socialize, stay in touch, this is what we encourage by flying with Garuda safely and comfortably.
“Air transportation was unable to compete with land transportation because the public did not need to pocket negative negative test results, while to get on a plane it was a mandatory requirement. The condition of this rapid test is that we are losing ground by road,” he concluded.
If it is in land, he continued driving straight back to Solo and immediately went into the house. It was stated that the decline in passenger traffic last May reached 90%. [antaranews/photo special]
