In Reply to: Garuda to fly from Adelaide posted by bogden on Sunday, 21. September 2008 at 06:26 Bali Time:
Its 2 years since Garuda abandoned Adelaide (and all of South Australia in fact), folded up its tent and went sneaking off into the darkness.
In those 2 years they have been able to substantially increase the number of flights from Sydney, Melbourne and Perth (28 flights every week from Perth alone we are told) but not one from Adelaide. Meanwhile South Australians have had to fly first to the eastern capitals and then fly back over SA to get to Bali or fly to Darwin or Perth and wait around for hours (even over-night) or fly to Malaysia or Singapore, over-flying Bali on the way before returning to our chosen destination.
We South Australians are a loyal lot, small and parochial maybe, but loyal to those who stand with us. Those who abandon us, as Garuda have callously done despite our requests to them, will not easily regain our trust. If Virgin (or Pacific Blue) can just put some packages together with a small range of accommodation providers in Bali I know where I will tell Garuda to go, and I know a lot of other South Aussies will join me; in fact I have given Garuda that message by booking a very un-planned extra trip back to Bali with that 'other airline'.
Bl**dy beauty, Sir Richard.