Sriwijaya Air

I often fly Dili-Denpasar. In comparison to Merpati the big thing is that they have newer more comfortable aircraft's. Otherwise they seem the same as Merpati: frequent delays (allow a lot of time if you're connecting through Bali) poor ground staff and co-ordination ok in-flight service and meals.

Flew CGK-SIN with Sriwijaya Air to make a change from the usual Lion Air Air Asia etc. Booked online only 48 hours before for the bargain price of 40 USD one-way. Check-in was fine with no queue and was lucky to get a retro boarding pass from a dot-matrix printer. We left 45 mins late but they apologised profusely Only about 20 passengers on the flight however the cabin crew told me the return flight from SIN was full. Aircraft was a Boeing 737-300 in surprisingly good condition and the captain was Australian. The only disappointment was the food - a strange combination of scrambled egg half frozen French fries and carrots. However it was still edible and at least food is free unlike the LCCs. I'd use Sriwijaya Air again.

Flight SJ099 from TKG-CGK was planned at 16.40 local time. Then my wife received short message informing that the flight will be delayed to 17.15 without any reason. We arrived on the TKG airport at 16.15 and my wife checked-in. The staff at check-in counter informing again that the flight will be delayed to 17.40. My wife then waited at the lounge and another announcement sounded another delayed flight for SJ099 to 18.40. The delay was going through 19.15 when my wife was finally boarding. The good thing was they informed about the delay the worst thing was the delay itself.

Flight from Batam to Padang. The check-in counter was so slow they should provide online check-in which will make it easier for those who doesn't need to drop luggage. Check-in staff were not polite and don't speak English. But inside the cabin the FA's were good and smiled. They still gave out a snack and drink on such a low cost price.

Tanjung Pandan to Jakarta in early July. Stewardess service is quite good food is just snacks but are tolerable. Flight was delayed almost an hour. During the flight stewardesses were busy selling rather than serving passengers.