Amidst mounting pressure of employees for a management reshuffle, the president director of flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, Emirsyah Satar said he will let the newly appointed minister of State Owned Enterprises (SOE), Sofyan Djalil handle the case.

“It is the stakeholder [SOE] that will evaluate the performance of Garuda management. We are working. We are focusing on our restructuring programmes,” Satar said.

Garuda’s public relations manager Pujobroto said the restructuring programmes have in fact reshaped the image of the carrier as can be seen from the management’s success in significantly curbing the losses from Rp 811.3 billion in 2004 to Rp 688.4 billion in 2005, and further down to Rp 197 billion in 2006. In the first quarter of 2007, Garuda has even booked net profit of Rp 114.8 billion.

Satar said Garuda will continue to perform better in the next few years. The carrier is ready to compete with international carriers when an open skies policy is implemented in 2008. However, the carrier has asked the government to protect domestic carriers from domination of foreign airlines when the liberalised era starts. – Siktus Harson