After Sriwijaya Left The Garuda Workshop

Garuda Indonesia and Sriwijaya Air aircraft (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

JAKARTA - The Sriwijaya Air plane with flight number SJ-182 crashed in the waters around Laki Island and Lancang Island, Seribu Islands, Jakarta. Sriwijaya Air's care is in the spotlight. Sriwijaya Air experienced debt problems which resulted in the termination of the aircraft maintenance contract with the Garuda Maintanance Facility (GMF). Authorities are asked to check the aircraft maintenance history or log book.

Sriwijaya Air has had tremendous ups and downs in its business. Exploring its first flight on 10 November 2003, Sriwijaya Air started it all with one fleet of Boeing 737-200 types.

Over time, Sriwijaya Air has grown. They also added to their collection of aircraft to 15 units with all of them Boeing. In its fourth year, 2007, Sriwijaya Air was awarded the Boeing International Award for Safety and Maintenance of Aircraft.

The achievement continues. In 2013, the company established a feeder airline which they named NAM Air. Two years from there, the airline received an aviation safety certification from the Flight Safety Foundation, an independent, non-profit organization based in the United States (US).

Debt problems with Garuda Indonesia

Sriwijaya Air and Garuda Indonesia (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

Since the end of 2019, Sriwijaya Air's debt problems have been sticking out. The airline, which was pioneered by businessmen Chandra Lie, Hendry Lie, and Johannes Bunjamin, is known to be in debt to a number of parties. January 2020, PT Garuda Maintanance Facility Aeroasia Tbk (GMFI) revealed that Sriwijaya Air's outstanding debt to his party reached IDR 810 billion.

In 2018, Sriwijaya Air established a management collaboration with Garuda Indonesia. The cooperation is expected to save Sriwijaya Air from financial problems. However, the cooperation did not go according to plan. The two parties decided to stop working together.

As a result, GMF Aero Asia, a subsidiary of Garuda Indonesia, had refused to provide aircraft maintenance services for Sriwijaya Air. It hit Sriwijaya Air enough. The absence of maintenance from the Garuda workshop had made Sriwijaya Air declared unfit for flight.

However, in October 2019, Sriwijaya Air was declared to be able to operate again as the maintenance services from GMF gradually returned. As quoted by Kontan, the President Director of PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk, Ari Askhara, at that time said, "Yesterday we did stop the service for maintenance. Now we are resuming to operate again, ”said Ari.

November 2019, cooperation between the two parties collapsed again. Sriwijaya Air assessed that the cooperation with Garuda Indonesia has actually made the company's performance worse. Sriwijaya Air and Garuda Indonesia are also at odds over the amount of debt. Sriwijaya Air rejected Garuda Indonesia's claim that Sriwijaya's debt was reduced by 18 percent.

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Sriwijaya Air aircraft (Source: Commons Wikimedia)

According to Sriwijaya, their debt has actually increased. At that time, Sriwijaya Air's attorney who was also a shareholder of Sriwijaya Air, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, said that Sriwijaya Air's debt increased due to Garuda Indonesia's intervention which resulted in increased company spending.

One of the interventions that Yusril referred to is the transfer of aircraft maintenance to the Garuda Maintanance Facility (GMF). Previously, aircraft maintenance was carried out by Sriwijaya Air technicians. GMF makes Sriwijaya Air more expensive for maintenance.

Yusril also explained that the cooperation scheme was detrimental to Sriwijaya Air. According to Yusril, the cooperation between the two parties has changed, from being an operational cooperation to a management cooperation. As a result, Sriwijaya Air is required to pay a management fee of 5 percent and 65 percent for the results to Garuda Indonesia.

"It is calculated from the company's gross income. As a result, the company could collapse like that. So this wants to save Sriwijaya or destroy it, ”Yusril was quoted as saying by Tirto.

Apart from Garuda Indonesia, Sriwijaya Air is also known to have debt problems with other state-owned companies. As quoted by Kumparan, there are at least a number of debts that have been recorded by Sriwijaya Air: Pertamina Rp942 billion, BNI Rp585 billion (principal), Angkasa Pura I Rp50 billion, to Angkasa Pura II Rp.80 billion.

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Sriwijaya aircraft maintenance

After the Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 plane crashed, maintenance of Sriwijaya Air planes was in the spotlight. Aviation observer Antonius Lisliyanto urged the authorities to immediately open the maintenance history of Sriwijaya Air aircraft (log book).

"We have to see the aircraft maintenance log books. From the information I got, the plane was delayed. From the log book it will explain the delay due to weather or technical problems," said Antonius as quoted by Antara.

Joint team to lift debris from Sriwijaya Air SJ-182 aircraft (Ilham Apriyanto / VOI)

By checking the log book, the authorities can reveal at least one important thing about the accident, namely the reason for the plane's delay. "If the log book is delayed due to technical problems, then the plane is not ready," said Antonius.

We have contacted Sriwijaya Air Corporate Communication Theodora Erika to confirm a number of things, especially regarding the latest developments in the amount of Sriwijaya Air's debt and how this debt affects the maintenance of their aircraft. Theodora is not yet ready to contact us.

"We can't confirm by phone yet," he said in a text message to VOI, Sunday night, January 10.

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