National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia canceled a flight from Singapore Changi Airport to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Sunday due to a lack of available pilots. The plane was scheduled to depart at 10 p.m. Singapore time.
Garuda spokesman Ikhsan Rosan said the pilots who were meant to fly that evening had flown for nine hours on Sunday – the maximum number of hours a pilot is permitted to fly in one day.
“The pilots should fly for a maximum of nine hours a day after having flown five times but, due to delays, the pilots had reached the flying limit,” Ikhsan told on Sunday night, adding that the pilots were not immediately replaced as all available ones were in Jakarta.
As a result, hundreds of passengers were forced to reschedule their flights on Monday as all Sunday flights were fully booked.
One of the passengers, Rudy Bani, 39, said he was frustrated with the airlines because he had a meeting on Monday afternoon.
“I am a frequent flyer of Garuda and this kind of thing had never happened before. This is the worst,” Rudy said.
Passengers trying to book morning and afternoon flights on Monday reportedly had a difficult time finding available seats.