I'm normally someone that recommends Sriwijaya as my preferred domestic carrier to places that Garuda does not go to in Indonesia. I also am aware that these are just two data points and I have had decent experiences with them in the past but....
On my trip last week to Raja Ampat, the Sriwijaya flight to Sorong was 3 hours late. It was supposed to leave at 3:30am. A 3 hour delay is not unheard of but what really pissed people off was that neither the airline nor the airport would say a thing except "Just wait 10 more minutes". After the 4:30am Sorong flight boarded, the Sriwijaya agent finally showed up and after a lot of screaming and pushing (by fellow Indonesians), he finally conceded to a few people that the flight attendants didn't show up because they were too tired. He was going to call for replacements who got there about 6:00am. We didn't miss any diving but when you only fly at god-forsaken hours, at least have the courtesy to keep people informed of ****ups like this. At 5:00am, they updated the notice board to say that the flight was delayed until a 4:00am departure. That does not count as keeping anyone informed.
On the way back to Makassar, almost everyone on the boat had tickets for the 11:40am flight. By pure coincidence, two customers were discussing departure times and the guy who bought his ticket at the last minute said his flight was at 10:40am but he noticed that it was the same flight number as everyone else's 11:40am flight. Huh? It turned out that Sriwijaya moved the flight up one hour and did not bother to tell any of the confirmed passengers. By pure luck, we got to the airport on time.
Welcome to Indonesia. BTW, the diving still makes this trip worth it and smoking is no longer allowed in Sorong Airport so the travel wasn't a complete pain in the butt.
On my trip last week to Raja Ampat, the Sriwijaya flight to Sorong was 3 hours late. It was supposed to leave at 3:30am. A 3 hour delay is not unheard of but what really pissed people off was that neither the airline nor the airport would say a thing except "Just wait 10 more minutes". After the 4:30am Sorong flight boarded, the Sriwijaya agent finally showed up and after a lot of screaming and pushing (by fellow Indonesians), he finally conceded to a few people that the flight attendants didn't show up because they were too tired. He was going to call for replacements who got there about 6:00am. We didn't miss any diving but when you only fly at god-forsaken hours, at least have the courtesy to keep people informed of ****ups like this. At 5:00am, they updated the notice board to say that the flight was delayed until a 4:00am departure. That does not count as keeping anyone informed.
On the way back to Makassar, almost everyone on the boat had tickets for the 11:40am flight. By pure coincidence, two customers were discussing departure times and the guy who bought his ticket at the last minute said his flight was at 10:40am but he noticed that it was the same flight number as everyone else's 11:40am flight. Huh? It turned out that Sriwijaya moved the flight up one hour and did not bother to tell any of the confirmed passengers. By pure luck, we got to the airport on time.
Welcome to Indonesia. BTW, the diving still makes this trip worth it and smoking is no longer allowed in Sorong Airport so the travel wasn't a complete pain in the butt.
