Wind Beneath the Wings
The newly-appointed Director and CEO of Garuda Indonesia, Irfan Setiaputra, opens up about his role and how national airline fares during the Covid-19 pandemic
Mark Anderson, a motivational speaker, once said that “great leadership usually starts with a willing heart, a positive attitude, and a desire to make a difference”. To enable and execute these factors in a leader is a challenging, ongoing task even when the weather is fair. President and CEO of Garuda Indonesia Irfan Setiaputra has to do it as the state-owned carrier faces heavy headwinds during the global Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, before his appointment in January 2020, Irfan had no background in the airline industry. “Although very much surprised, I am honoured and grateful at this chance to lead
Garuda Indonesia and serve my country,” he says.
Just shy of three decades, he has been leading various executive positions at mining and informational technologies at companies both privately- and stateowned. Taking the opportunity as a challenge, Irfan is on a journey to lead the company from his experiences and views as the airline’s passenger. As such, today, Garuda Indonesia and its management focus on developing services through customer-oriented approaches based on fliers’ needs and satisfactions. Aware of the fast and vast development of technologies to boost the overall flying experience, Irfan works together with different departments to optimise Garuda Indonesia’s digital channels.
“During the pandemic, it is of importance to have technologies that fast and easy to use, plus to minimise direct contact between one another,” he says. The airline’s Flygaruda mobile application, for instance, has been enhanced with different features from online ticketing to Garudamiles point redemption, inflight magazines, and many others. The latter contains not only Garuda Indonesia’s beloved in-house magazine, Colours, but also top titles of Tatler Indonesia, Generation.t and Forbes Indonesia. E-ticketing system, on the other hand, is additionally available through a 24-hour Whatsapp call centre and hotline to maximise and integrate overall customer services.
However positively perceived are these digital upgrades, passengers still feel hesitant to fly and prefer to wait and see how the pandemic progresses. Last year, Garuda Indonesia conducted an internal survey about the people’s interest in travel, which showed that 56 per cent would travel immediately between July to December 2020 for business trips. Meanwhile, 73 per cent preferred to travel within the next six months, and 12 per cent were still unsure and prefer to reserve their tickets for now. “Based on these data, our job now is to help return the people’s trust and confidence in air travels,” says Irfan. “Furthermore, another research showed that passengers prioritise safety and comfort in choosing travels, so Garuda Indonesia to keep up its good work in these fields.”
These days, to provide safe flights and comfortable experiences for those with immediate needs, Garuda
Indonesia consistently applies health protocols at all operational aspects. “From pre-flight to in-flight and post-flight, we have specific procedures: hand sanitiser at all service touchpoints, temperature checks with thermal scan and so on,” Irfan says. “We also enact physical-distancing rules strictly at check-in stations and lounges, with in-flight seating arrangement, and many more places.” He then cites a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology about the risk of Covid-19 during flights, which shows a lower transmission ratio of 1: 7700 when middle seats are left empty. Although this strategy reduces the number of total passengers for all flights, Garuda Indonesia flies wide-berth planes to accommodate high-demand destinations.
Irfan admits that the industry has many unique challenges, including, and especially, for Garuda Indonesia in serving the archipelagic nation. “As a national flag carrier, the airline’s role is more than profitability but to ensure connectivity within the country, regionally and globally—more so in this crucial time during the pandemic. Garuda Indonesia fully commits to bring safe and comfortable services while supporting Indonesia’s economic growth.” Besides monitoring health measures by coordinating with local and global health authorities, the airline works with the state to limit passenger flight frequencies for some routes. Moreover, Garuda Indonesia helps to facilitate
“Furthermore, we support the government in increasing the distribution of pharmacy goods cargo, which earned the certification of Good Distribution”
the government and businesses alike with increasing logistic flight frequencies.
Through its transport and logistic arm, Aerojasa Cargo, the airline had previously launched the Kirimaja application supported by the connectivity networks and land services of Garuda Indonesia Group. Two passenger freighters also have been modified to maximise cargo load, flying directly through different international routes between economic hubs. To date, available destinations served by Airbus A330-300, which has a total haul of 40 tonnes for each flight, go from Manado in North Sulawesi to Narita in Japan; Makassar in
South Sulawesi to Singapore; and Denpasar in Bali, and Surabaya in East Java, both to Hong Kong.
“Furthermore, we support the government in increasing the distribution of pharmacy goods cargo, which earned the certification of Good Distribution Practice in November last year,” Irfan says. He further explains that the certification means guaranteed quality services, as described through 180 standardised international measures: handling of acceptance, storage and delivery, proper human resources training, and so forth. All of these efforts are Garuda Indonesia’s ways to help shuttle the movement of goods quickly and efficiently, and a positive uptick for this service signal a welcoming response from communities and businesses.
The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted almost all business and operational sectors and impacted the airline’s business core value to mobilise passengers by limiting their movements. Nevertheless, Irfan remains positive would turn out for the better. His willingness to help out directly in the fields has surprised many upon seeing the amiable leader came down to handle menial tasks, for example. However, his goal is to boost the team’s morale while listening to their input for improvements. “We learned so many important lessons in business, customer service, and so on,” he said. “Garuda Indonesia has to continue to adapt and innovate to stay agile and survive this challenging time. We can do this together to realise the government and people’s trust in us as a proud legacy for the Garuda Indonesia family and the Indonesian people in general.”