When it comes to us regular folk, there’s not much we can do if we miss our flight. If we really have to fly somewhere on that day, all we can do is cry our way to the ticket counter and book ourselves onto another flight, hoping the airline might give us a discount out of pity.
But if you’re an Indonesian politician, then you have the option of throwing a public temper tantrum and denouncing an airline when you miss a flight through no fault but your own.
Yesterday, Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Minister Marwan Jafar was scheduled to fly Garuda Indonesia from Jakarta to Yogyakarta at 8:05 AM. When the final call was announced at 8:00 AM, Marwan and his group hadn’t boarded the plane.
“The other passengers were already on the plane so the plane had to depart,” said Garuda Indonesia Spokesman Benny S. Butarbutar, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.
The plane then took off right on schedule. Meanwhile, it appears Marwan only arrived at the VIP lounge in the terminal at 8:05.
At this point, the minister was given special treatment from Garuda. Unlike us commoners, Marwan and his group were moved to the next flight to Yogyakarta at 10:05AM, totally free of charge.
Unfortunately, that flight was delayed for an hour, in part due to the logistical chaos caused by Marwan’s initial lateness.
“The process of moving passengers to another flight required time as we had to move the passengers themselves, baggage, cargo, catering, and other things, so the flight was delayed by an hour and finally took off at 11:05AM,” Benny said.
Even when he was afforded so many privileges from Garuda, Marwan couldn’t help but publicly rant against the state-owned airline because the whole episode caused him to be more than four hours late for a seminar in Yogyakarta.
“If we’re only late for two or three minutes, they’d leave us behind. But if the flight is delayed for two or three hours, we get nothing,” Marwan said during a speech at the seminar to explain his lateness, as quoted by Tribun.
“Nothing”? Really? Even after getting all those concessions from Garuda?
And does Marwan honestly believe that anyone who’s even remotely late should be accommodated on a flight at the expense of all of the other passengers’ precious time? Surely a man of his standing should know better about basic flight etiquette.
Yet Marwan took the seminar as his opportunity to blast Garuda as incompetent and called for the airline’s executives to be replaced, as he claims they haven’t made a profit in years.
This is far from the first case in which entitled Indonesian politicians have thrown tantrums when told they have to follow airline rules like the rest of us. Back in 2013, a public official hit an air hostess after she asked him to switch off his mobile phone on board. Also that same year, a district chief ordered the closure of his hometown airport because he was upset that he couldn’t get on a flight home as it was full.
