JAKARTA: PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk guaranteed to continue serving all domestic and international flights from Jakarta despite the strike of Garuda Pilots Association today.Operational Director of Garuda Ari Sapari said it has prepared dozens of senior pilot who are now responsible as instructors and structural management officials to be in charge as temporary pilots."They will be in charge on July 28 in anticipation of a pilot shortage," he said yesterday.Ari explained that they have prepared accommodation for the pilot in a nearby hotel in the airport area, thus they will be ready to fly at any time if necessary.Every day, according to him, Garuda needs about 170-230 pilot to serve 365 domestic and international flight schedules.As he added, Garuda needs a lot of pilots to serve 154 flights per day from Jakarta.Currently, according to Ari, Garuda pilot is hiring as many as 43 temporary pilots, 34 of whom are foreign pilots and the rest is a former pilot of Mandala Airlines.He added a total of 36 pilots will end their working contracts between October and November 2011, and the rest will end in February 2012.Ari confirmed the salary of Garuda pilots is greater than the temporary pilots.Foreign pilots, as he added, only receive 12 times salary per year while local pilots earn 15.5 times per year.According to Ari, his party did not want to speculate about the potential loss that will be experienced by the company if the strike will be held today."The most important is the companys service to service users will not be disturbed," Ari said today.Garuda Pilot Association President (APG) Stephanus Geraldus Rahadi said that they will still hold a strike starting today at 00.00 a.m. until 11:59 p.m. although the management of Garuda has urged to cancel the plan.About 70 pilots, as he said, are willing to conduct a strike on a schedule flight from Soekarno-Hatta Airport."The strike will only take place in Jakarta. Flights to Jakarta will be normal as usual, "he said.He deplored the reaction of President Director of Garuda Emirsyah Satar who was not willing to meet with representatives of APG.APGs legal consultant Adnan Buyung Nasution said the management of Garuda should listen to the aspiration of Garuda pilots because it is protected by law.Supposedly, as he said, the Garuda did not impose an increasing number of fleet without being followed by the additional pilots as it may endanger the flight safety."Finally, the workload becomes overloaded. Meanwhile, the income is still same, said Buyung in a comment on the respond of Emirsyah to the issue."Emirsyah seems arrogant because he has been already improving the performance of Garuda," he added.In addition, he also had a dialogue with Minister of Transportation Freddy Numberi and Minister of SOEs Mustafa Abubakar in order to complete the salary gap between foreign and local pilots.Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa expected Garuda's management to have solution on the strike of its pilots. (25/Linda T. Silitonga/Hendra Wibawa)(t03/msw)

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