Garuda, ‘Best International Airline’
Last updated: March 9, 2012
A poll improbably finds Garuda to be the world’s “Best International Airline”, for one month, in Australia.
Australian research firm Roy Morgan has found Garuda Indonesia airline to be the most popular international airline among Australians, with Indonesia’s national carrier scoring a considerable 91% customer satisfaction rating for the time period February 2011 – January 2012, and ranking ahead of world bestriding giants Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Air New Zealand, and Cathay Pacific. The sample size of the poll was 3943 people.
Puffed up Garuda president director Emirsyah Satar on hearing the news admitted that he shared the surprise of some:
This survey really surprises us and we are going to keep improving our services in order to satisfy all of our customers
Bapak Emirsyah attributed the winning of the accolade to Garuda’s new focus on “The Garuda Indonesia Experience” – that is, offering passengers a uniquely Indonesian style of service, both on the ground and up in the air, – as well as its “Quantum Leap” program, this latter involving the “revitalization” of its existing fleet.
Other, less enthusiastic reactions to the news included one outraged Australian journalist, Ben Sandilands, who recorded his
disbelief and disgust
at Garuda’s win, saying how on March 7th 2007
Garuda killed one of my colleagues, Morgan Mellish, the Jakarta correspondent of the Australian Financial Review, when he was burned alive inside one of its Boeing 737s in a crash at Yogyakarta, one of five Australians to die at the hand of an incompetent and negligent pilot whose presence at the controls reflects on the pathetic flight safety standards of the carrier at the time.
Garuda’s victory in the Customer Satisfaction stakes is valid only for the month of January 2012 (results from February are not yet available). The Customer Satisfaction awards, based on Roy Morgan Single Source, the world’s largest ongoing single source survey, are updated each month. The annual, official, 2011 winner was Air New Zealand.
3 Comments on “Garuda, ‘Best International Airline’”
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Arie Brand says:
Anyone for Lion Air?
http://philippineairspace.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/ph-airlines-banned-in-eu.html
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As a very regular air traveller both internal and regional I would have to say Garuda has improved out of sight. You would have to look very hard to find something to complain about. In fact, easily best value for money and in terms of service and condition of the fleet leaves major airline like the mangy Roo (QANTAS) for dead.
I do concur baggage handling and internal infrastructure still needs some work but even that has improved significantly over the last five years.
Comment on “Garuda, ‘Best International Airline’”.
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It is not right to rate Garuda as the ‘best international airline’ at the current moment and it should have been rated as ‘average.’
Reason for it is because when I travel by Garuda, I have noticed torn back seats pockets, arm rest missing, meal table slanting, etc.
I also remembered and cannot forget that at one time my luggage was drenched with an unknown strong liquid which totally damaged my luggage. When I made a complained about it at the Garuda counter, the staff was very un-helpful hence I just packed it up and left with making any complaint.
Another issue is the ‘frequent flyer’ programme. You apply for it but never receive the membership card despite informing Garuda.
From my point of view, Garuda is not yet ready to be the ‘best international airline’ until Garuda tightened up everything.