In Reply to: omg garuda posted by gwm on Saturday, 31. May 2008 at 11:04 Bali Time:
The truth is that Garuda is not held in very high regard by the professional pilot community as a whole. One only need look at hull losses over the past five years to come to a very rapid conclusion that all is not right with Garuda operations, at least at the domestic level. There have also been a hell of a lot of reports concerning off track operations by Garuda and an inability to understand instructions issued in English, the only language sanctioned by ICAO.
If a happy smile is all that you require on a flight then Garuda by all means. If you insist on a high standard of crew competence then, perhaps another carrier should be considered. I agree that at times the QANTAS cabin staff are hard to deal with but I have had the same with Garuda. There, I have said it. I do, from time to time travel with Garuda but only on those flights in the low activity areas between DPS and Perth where mistakes are a little bit less critical.
As to the perception as to how these incidents are publicised I suggest that any errors made by QANTAS probably get a great deal more coverage than those incurred by Garuda. The Civil Aviation Safety Digest has a summary of every incident involving Australian aircraft and they do not pull punches. The recent reporst I have seen on Channel 7 can not be, in my opinion, construed as bagging Garuda. It was the Safety Authority that expressed concern, not the media,
Cheers
Maverick