Palace Denies Presidential Aircraft Causes Cancelation of Garuda Flight

Deputy to Presidential Secretariat Chief for Protocol, Press, and Media Affairs Bey Machmudin clarified the news that the Presidential aircraft caused the cancellation of a Garuda Indonesia flight number GA-425 from I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali on Friday (4/8) at 9.30 pm WITA (Central Indonesian Time).

“The cancellation of the flight has nothing to do with the Presidential aircraft at all. President Joko “Jokowi’ Widodo and First Lady Ibu Iriana Joko Widodo took off from I Gusti Ngurah Rai Aairport at 6.20 pm WITA and landed at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta at 7 pm WIB (Western Indonesian Time),” Bey said in his press release on Saturday (5/8).

A wide time difference between the two flights, Bey said, clearly shows that there is no connection between the cancellation of the Garuda flight and the Presidential aircraft. “When the Garuda plane was initially scheduled to take off at 9.30 pm WITA, the presidential aircraft had already landed in Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta for more than an hour,” Bey said.

Previously, Garuda Indonesia’s Communications Manager Ikhsan Rosan explained that the cancellation of the Garuda flight, which was scheduled to fly from Denpasar to Jakarta, was not due to the presidential aircraft that was passing by at that time.

According to Ikhsan, the Garuda aircraft had already experienced technical problems when it was still in Jakarta and needed repair for around 2 hours.  In addition, he said that there was a notice to airmen (notam) on the movement of a VIP flights at the Bali airport; thus time adjustment for commercial flights was needed.

Ikhsan added that the Garuda flight, which was scheduled to take off at 9.45 pm, was delayed for 2 hours but due to limited flying hours of the crew, the flight was eventually cancelled. “So it was not cancelled because of the presidential aircraft,” Ikhsan said.

Ikhsan added that Garuda Indonesia has given cash compensations and provided hotels for the passengers. In addition, he added that the airline has also provided other flights.

“It is understandable if many people complain about it because it was late at night and the passengers had been waiting for 2 hours. We would like to apologize for the inconvenience,” Ikhsan said. (UN/BPMI/ES) (EP/YM/Naster)