Another Indonesian Domestic Flight with Sriwijaya Air
 

Hello friends!

Welcome to my 7th report on FlyerTalk. You can click links below to see all of my reports before this.
First Time & Last Time by Air France, Singapore-Jakarta
An Indonesian Domestic Flight with Garuda Indonesia, from Jakarta to Pekanbaru
A Short Trip to Malaysia & Singapore with KLM (B77W) and Indonesia AirAsia (A320)
Jakarta, Medan, Aceh, KL, and Malacca in 4 Days
A Journey with Jetstar and KLM + trip to Genting
Malaysia Airlines + KLM + Overland Trip to Thai Border

5 of them are involving international flights. But this time I will write a report of Indonesian domestic (more exactly: intra-island) flight with Sriwijaya Air.

As usual, please apologize for my bad English, and there will be more pictures than words.

BRIEF BACKGROUND

The name "Sriwijaya" was derived from an A.D. 6th century Buddhist kingdom founded in South Sumatra. It is one of Indonesian private airlines, with more than 50 domestic routes, 2 international routes (Medan-Penang & Denpasar-Dili), and chartered flight from/to China. If Garuda Indonesia is full service carrier, while AirAsia is low cost carrier (LCC), well, I don't know what Sriwijaya Air is to be categorized as. Its ticket prices are almost similar with local LCCs, but in long-distance flights (> 2 hours) they do serve meal sets, something you won't find in LCCs.

The flight route of this story was Solo (Adi Sumarmo Airport) - Jakarta (Soekarno-Hatta Airport). Solo, or formally called "Surakarta", is located in Central Java Province and also its 2nd largest city. Together with Yogyakarta, Solo is well-known as "heart" of Javanese culture, as it was the political center of 2 kingdoms: Surakarta Hadiningrat and Mangkunegaran (both of them declared as part of Indonesia after Indonesian independence in 1945). The palaces of both kingdoms are now main tourist attraction. Solo is also famous as centre of "batik" industry. I personally can't forget Solo's traditional foods like "bakso" (meatballs with noodles and soup), "tengkleng" (a kind of goat soup), "nasi liwet" (rice dish with coconut milk), and many others.

I arrived in Solo from Jakarta by intercity bus, so there is no flight report on Jakarta-Solo sector.

After spending a night in this medium-size city, I had to go back to my hometown in Jakarta on March 17th of 2017. Currently there are 6 operators of Solo-Jakarta flight route: Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air, Batik Air, Citilink, Sriwijaya Air, and Nam Air. Then I decided to buy Sriwijaya Air ticket for only IDR 370,000 (around USD 29).

Before to the main story, I will show you some snapshots of Solo city.

Slamet Riyadi Road, the main road of Solo, with the statue of Brig. Gen. Ignatius Slamet Riyadi, an Indonesian army member died during the combat with Moluccan separatists.
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Pasar Gede (big market), one of Solo's main markets.
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Taman Sriwedari, one of community parks in Solo.
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Loji Gandrung, the official residence of the "Walikota" (Major) of Solo. One of its former "Walikota", Mr Joko Widodo, is now President of Indonesia.
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My breakfast: Soto Triwindu. "Soto" is a popular Indonesian-style soup.
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My lunch: Bakso Alex. In other cities of Indonesia "bakso" is usually served only with noodles, but here in Solo "bakso" is served also with rice.
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From the Slamet Riyadi Road, I hop a city bus to Adi Sumarmo Airport. The fare system of the bus is quite confusing. If you alight at any bus stops before the airport, the fare is only IDR 4.500, but if you alight at the airport terminal, the fare jumps dramatically to IDR 20.000.
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*The man with shirt in front of me and his son were also going to Jakarta with Sriwijaya Air SJ 215, same flight with me. He just told me some minutes before reaching the airport.
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Entering airport area. An Airbus A330-300 of Garuda was seen from the far.
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OK, now we are entering the main part of the story.

Sriwijaya Air
Solo (SOC) - Jakarta Soekarno Hatta (CGK)
March 17th, 2017
Flight no: SJ 215
Reg code: PK-CKI ("Kebaikan")
Type: Boeing 737-300
Dep: 5.00 p.m. (UTC+7)
Arr: 6.00 p.m. (UTC+7)

The city bus reached a bus stop at around 200 m from the airport. I didn't want to pay the unusual fare of IDR 20.000, so I alighted there. Then I walked to the airport area. This was my first time visit to the airport.
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The airport's building was resembling the "Joglo", traditional Javanese house.
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Check in area.
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Our flight: SJ 215, scheduled to depart at 4.50 p.m.
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Garuda's counter, with usual Skyteam identity.
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Lion Air's banner promoting their new route from Solo to KL. Unfortunately it has been terminated after 3 weeks. I think their promotion was not effective. Currently the sole operator of the route is Malaysian AirAsia.
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Check in counters of Sriwijaya Air. Here I got my powerful paper to fly. Yes, the boarding pass was printed on a simple paper, reminding me to grocery stores' receipts.
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After the check-in, I proceed to the waiting hall. While on the way to it, there was a calendar of tourism events that would be held in Solo.
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The waiting hall. Not too crowded.
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The waiting hall was equipped with charging outlets. Wi-fi was also available.
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No international flights for that day, so the immigration counter was closed.
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Sights outside the window were more interesting. Citilink ready for departure to Jakarta-Halim Airport.
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Lion Air.
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The A330 of Garuda Indonesia, ready for departure to Jakarta-Soekarno Hatta. The passengers were lucky to get this wide-body jet, while usually the flight was served by B738.
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Batik Air, also to Jakarta-Halim.
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Then the Sriwijaya Air's aircraft bringing me to Jakarta arrived. It was Boeing 737-300, with registration code PK-CKI, titled "Kebaikan" (kindness / virtue). The details on Planespotters shows that the aircraft was 25.1 years old, having been operated by TAESA Mexico, Sobelair Belgium, Air One Italy, and KrasAir Russia, before handed to Sriwijaya Air in 2010.
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Time for boarding through an aerobridge.
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While boarding, a Lion Air aircraft was ready for departure to Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan.
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Entering the aircraft, as usual, we were warmly welcomed by cabin crews, young cabin crews.
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My seat.
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On the eastern side, Batik Air was still waiting for departure.
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All passengers had embarked. Cabin crews started the safety instructions. Fortunately, there were no queue to take-off. The aircraft left the runway and flew smoothly at about 5.00 p.m.
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Passing the Waduk (lake) Cengklik, shortly after take-off.
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*The "curve" at upright side of the picture was part of Solo-Surabaya Toll Road project.
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Clouds at an hour before sunset.
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Seatbelt sign were switched off, and we could move freely. Time to check any stuff inside the seatpocket.
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Safety card.
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Inflight shopping catalogue.
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*I was more focusing to the models than the products. Hahahaha.
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"Sriwijaya" magazine.
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On this "short" flight (< 2 hours), there wasn't any meal set. The cabin crews gave us only a "Tango" wafer and a cup of mineral water.
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As there was no IFE, I used my cellphone as source of entertainment, listening musics and watching some videos.

About 10 minutes before landing, Java Sea was seen outside the window.
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Industrial zones around the airport.
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Finally the aircraft landed safely and smoothly in Soekarno-Hatta Airport at about 6.00 p.m.
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Sriwijaya Air used the Terminal 2F (formerly used by Garuda before moving to the new Terminal 3), adjacent to international terminals of 2D & 2E. That's why we could easily see international airlines' fleets from our aircraft.

Garuda and ANA.
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Qantas just landed from Sydney, with Singapore Airlines at its right side.
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Garuda A330. There was also a plane of Thai Airways behind it.
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Garuda 777 could also be seen, just arrived from London.
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The Sriwijayas.
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KLM just landed from Amsterdam through Kuala Lumpur. I checked the FR24, its registration code was PH-BVN.
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Reaching the gate. Our aircraft was parked beside the Nam Air, Sriwijaya's subsidiary.
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Time to leave the aircraft. This time we were not using aerobridges/
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Way to terminal building.
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Baggage claim area. I didn't check any bags, so I didn't have anything to claim here.
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The belt was used together with AirAsia flight from Yogyakarta.
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Then I went straightly to the bus station, to hop the express bus to my lovely home.
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OK, that's my story of a domestic intra-island flight with Sriwijaya Air. Any feedbacks are appreciated. Thanks for reading. :)

Cool TR from Java:).
Just like Air Asia too.
Damn, I was looking forward to seeing their famous jelly dessert:D.

I don't know or remember if they offer jelly dessert on board. Perhaps it's only for longer flights.

Thank you very much for sharing. Enjoyed looking at the photos of the city and Solo Airport. I think I'd like to try eating Bakso sometime.

It was also interesting to read about the etymology of Sriwijaya in the airline's name.

I enjoyed reading an earlier report of another Sriwijaya Air flight to Dili, so it was good to catch another one on this carrier.

Looking on the seat fabric colors it is a former UA aircraft.

I do not want to panic, but Sriwijaya Air is on EU banned airlines list:

https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites...oc/list_en.pdf

"Bakso" is a popular Indonesian foods, especially in Solo Area and Malang (East Java).

From street vendors to splurge restaurants, "bakso" is widely available.

Thanks for your comment.

Great TR

GA 330 - is that unusual for a Solo rotation?

Thanks for posting. Brings back lots of memories of domestic flights in Indonesia on weird and wonderful ancient planes.

All Indonesian carriers are banned in 2007, including Garuda.

2 years later, Garuda's ban was lifted, then it relaunched its route to Amsterdam.

Recently, ban for Indonesia AirAsia, Lion Air, and Citilink are also lifted.

Sriwijaya Air has still long way to go. Fortunately it is rarely involved in any aviation incidents. Only 4 accidents involving Sriwijaya Air during its operation, and none of them causing death. I'm really optimistic that the ban for Sriwijaya Air will be lifted soon.

I've checked the FR24 during March 2017. It was a special flight scheduled every Friday, returning to its base in CGK after serving "umrah" flights (SOC-JED v.v.).

Thanks for your comment.

Thank you for posting this. Interesting read and photos. I travel domestic within Indonesia several times a year but mainly using Air Asia and Garuda.

Indonesia is a fascinating place and people are very very friendly.

Do you live in Brunei? It's not too far from here.

We are waiting for your next visit to Indonesia.

Am based in Brunei at the moment because we have a project going on at Muara Port so I generally fly on MH and Silk Air but have recently also begun flying on Royal Brunei who fly to Jakarta direct saving me time on MH transiting via KL.

Royal Brunei services are top class and the same standards as Garuda, one level up above MH.

For people with mid-level income like me, Royal Brunei is too pricey. But unfortunately it's the only choice for direct flight from Jakarta, Surabaya, and Bali to Brunei.

The only LCC option is AirAsia, with some hours transit in Kuala Lumpur.

Before establishment of AirAsia, some Indonesian workers in Brunei choose to fly to Pontianak, then continue to Brunei by bus, with journey time more than 24 hours.

I think SJ has several ex-UA and ex-CO aircraft. Three years ago or so when DanielW and I were in Timor Leste I arrived on one that was so obviously ex-CO that it still had CO-branded soap dispensers in the washroom!

Thanks for the great report on a seldom-seem airline in these forums.

RBA standards as at the same level as Singapore Air, Garuda, Thai Airways and Silk Air. Flight costs will def be up there and higher than say Air Asia prices.

I tolerate Air Asia sometimes because I have to..not that I enjoy flying with them. It comes down sometimes to connectivity times and getting to a destination in time with sufficient rest time for meetings and also at sensible prices.

At times, Malaysia Airline prices can be very silly.