February 8th 2011
We went to Jakarta on 6.20 AM by Garuda Airlines from Surabaya. We got 2 flights, but I’m in flight 1 so we went first. We ate at A&W to wait for the 2nd flight. When they arrived, we had briefing. Then, we started our adventure.
We went to Garuda.
Garuda have 3 spots.
Garuda – G. M. F. Aeroasia
GMF stands for Garuda Maintenance Facility
It was becoming a company since 2002, it have 115 hectar land and consist of 3 airplane hangars. All hangar are for aeroplane maintenance. We went to hangar 2 and it is a simple services special for Garuda Indonesia. A plane that will get maintenance will just stay for 1-3 days. 3 days is a maximum day for each plane. Hangar 3 is heavy maintenance service special for long planes such as boeing 737.
Generally, this place is available for all domestic aircraft, there are also planes from Europe and South East Asia. This place had certificates from FAA and SAA, which is known almost all over the world. It is also included biggest Top 10 in Indonesia.
Apron is a name for plane parking lot. From a worker there, he said that this company will do the best to serve the best maintenance and quality. They got sperparts from French, Europe. Every 6 years, their stuffs will be overhole or being checked up. There were no doubt working there, he liked it, but he worked very hard and non-stop there. “It was tiring, but fun”, he said.
There, we looked planes from near, we went inside and sitted in the pilot room. I saw there were a lot of machines in the pilot place. And I can’t be a pilot anyway, because they will not accept people with damage eyesight, also they will have some requires for physical, mental, and intelligence.
Garuda – A. C. S
ACS stands for Aero Catering Service. It is a place where they provide the blankets and food that we got everytime we go by plane.
It have a lot mottos, such as: integrity, fast, reliable, efficient, excellent work, hygene, and trusted. It have branches in many places such as: Juanda-Surabaya, Medan, Balikpapan, Jogja, and Denpasar. Their quality was proven from a certivicate they got about food safety. They got to audit their company every 6 months between units. It was worked since 1972 and already had 4,000 employees. It accepts hospital service also. They are Siloam, Pondok Indah, etc. Beside food in planes and hospital service, they also did the laundry! Called with ACS Laundry.
ACS serves around 35,000 portions each day. Their beef meat is imported from Australia because it is hygene and safe, but the chicken is still local from Indonesia. They have rivals from Malaysia and Singapore, but still they compete well enough.
We went inside the process of making, packing, and storaging. We even went inside the freezer! It was so cold inside. Before we went there, we used a cap and a coat. It was compulsory because if we left our hair in the food, and they got caught, they have to pay two millions for it! Just for a single hair. There are rooms labelled ‘bread’, ‘japanese’, ‘asians’, and many more. There even a place for liquid stuffs, there are a lot of galloons there! They got juices, fruits, veggies, and a lot of stuffs. That is why they have a lot of empoyees to organized it. There are a room for plates, bowls, glasses, forks, and spoons. They separate it into many blocks, for: Mandala, Garuda, China Airlines, etc. Each blocks have different type of equipment, different colour and patterns also. It used to differentiate them from another plane. 5R for them are ringkas, rapi, resik, rawat, and rajin and they have applied it.
Before we went to the third place, we had our lunch in ACS. Their foods were delicious! They served Indonesian food such as sop buntut and broccoli.
After that, we went to...
Garuda – G. M. T
GMT stands for Garuda Training Center. It is a place where they train evacuation when emergencies happen, training and test to those who want to be a pilot or the female attendant on long distance transport or in Indonesian we called it as pramugari. Unfortunately we can not use the evacuation simulation because there were people having test inside. So, I looked around the pramugari room. There was a training there, they got a lot of mirrors, catwalk path in the middle, and they were listening to a speaker at that time. They have to learn about clothes, gestures, classes, verbal language, voice, expressions, eye contact, walk, and how to comfort and serve people in the plane. I met a young woman named Mira. She was already a pramugari. She said that it was her dream to be a pramugari. The main thing is not just giving food, but how to help and serve people. She did not scared, she just enjoyed it. The procedure is a little bit complex and complicated, because they have to learn the details also. And to be pramugari is not that easy. She had to pass the TOEFL, minimum height of 165 centimeters, have a good health, and many others.
After that, we went to Bandung, had dinner in Kampung Daun, Checked in hotel in Amaris Hotel Bandung, and first day had already finished.
