Trigana Air: An entrepreneurial success story in eastern RI
Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo,
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
As Indonesia works to accelerate development in eastern parts of the country, aviation plays a crucial role since many paths between towns or regencies cannot be reached by cars or trucks.
Trigana Air Service – established as a company in 1991 – operates most of its aircraft in eastern parts of Indonesia, flying over deep valleys and pristine jungles to serve areas in Borneo and Papua.
While many airline carriers compete for the “fat” routes between main hubs, Trigana maximizes its strength to concentrate on “slimmer” options: cargo and feeder services. Trigana transports basic materials to remote areas in Papua and takes passengers to Borneo and East Nusa Tenggara.
The carrier, which employs 150 air crew and 80 ground staff, has managed to expand its fleet from four to 17 aircraft while many other domestic airlines continue to scale down their fleets. In the course of the last 15 years, Trigana has modified its approach from aerial photography to full freight services as well as half cargo and half passengers services.
The Jakarta Post recently interviewed the president director and owner of Trigana, Triputra Yusni Prawiro, better known as Yusni, 43, about the company’s growing business.
Question: How did you start Trigana Air Service?
Answer: Well, I have always loved aviation since I was a child and this business started out as a hobby.
It started in the early 1990s, when the government introduced a program to develop the economy in eastern parts of Indonesia. Before Trigana was born, I was already involved in a few companies in eastern areas.
There was an opportunity for air services at that time and we started building Trigana with a vision to help develop means of transportation in those areas. The aviation industry had an opportunity to grow there although airlines such as Merpati Nusantara Airline already existed.
Our first planes were Beech King Air and we had four of them, of which two were owned and the other two leased. We flew our aircraft back then mainly for aerial photography and landscape mapping. Trigana customers were mainly government institutions transporting basic materials to remote areas and forestry companies.
After operating those King Air planes for a few years, we thought that they had reached the end of their usefulness. We replaced them with Fokker F-27 planes with an emphasis on services in Papua.
Why did Papua become a priority?
At the time, Papua wanted to build its tourist industry. Then I asked myself “how?”. I met with Papua’s governor at the time, Jacob Pattipi, who had a mission to develop Asmat (tribal) culture and expose it internationally.
We had a partnership with Irian Bakti, a local company that had rights to distribute basic consumption materials, such as sugar, oil and rice, to all parts of Papua. We operated our aircraft to transport them.
At one point, we realized that our fleet was not large enough. Once there were a lot of accumulating materials that expired before they reached the end users. We saw rice that had turned to displeasing colors. It was hard to imagine people eating it.
The government’s plan to build the Trans Papua, a highway network that was to connect many parts of the island, had not materialized. So aviation naturally made a big contribution there.
What other aircraft did Trigana operate there?
Besides the F-27, we also operated Twin Otter and Potter Pilatus. We operated the F-27, with a capacity of four tons, to serve between main airports, such as Sentani and Wamena. The Twin Otter, with a one-ton capacity, served districts and the Potter Pilatus, with less than a ton, served subdistricts.
Transporting cargo only?
That’s right. However, about four years ago we had an airline permit for regular flights to serve passengers.
Before, Trigana only had a charter permit. After that we added to our fleet, and we decided that we could establish partnerships with companies that did not have Air Operator Certificates (AOC).
Our partners are KalStar, operating in East Kalimantan with a base in Serpong (Banten) and TransNusa Air, operating in East Nusa Tenggara with a base in Kupang. These companies have assigned Trigana to fly passengers using our aircraft.
In this case, Trigana does not have to worry about load factor because Trigana does not issue tickets. They have agreed to pay Trigana a certain amount of money no matter the number of passengers served.
Soon TransNusa and Trigana are going to begin operating our first Boeing planes. Now we are operating aircraft such as the ATR, F-27, Caribou and Twin Otter serving places such as Nabire, Sentani and Wamena in Papua, Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara, Balikpapan, Tarakan and Pontianak in Kalimantan as well as to Ambon.
What is your strategy to survive the competition?
We specialize in serving passengers and carrying cargo to remote areas instead of provincial hubs. All the hub routes have already been taken by Garuda, Batavia Air, Adam Air and other big carriers.
We don’t have a base in Jakarta because of the specialization. Passengers can reach big cities with bigger airlines and proceed to smaller places with Trigana. It is a promising business if we execute everything correctly.
After the Asian financial crisis back in the late 1990s, we could only lease and purchase second-hand aircraft with emphasis on maintenance.
Our assets have cost us a huge amount of money. If I had a chance now to start this business again from scratch, I do not think I could do it considering the competition and enormous financial capital required.
As for our crew, changing careers is fine with me, as long as they retain their aviation prowess they built and reputation once they move to other companies.
How is the competition now?
The competition for main hubs right now is quite fierce. Many carriers issue tickets lower than the prices stipulated by air transportation directorate general.
Furthermore, the building of infrastructure is mandatory now for every new airline. For example, a carrier has to build a facility in each airport supporting its airplanes. We choose to be in feeder services because we do not have to compete in prices. We do not want to compromise on prices related to safety.
The profit that we earn goes directly to improving the safety of our flights and investing on incoming aircraft. We are talking about human lives here, so safety is of paramount concern and remains our biggest challenge.
Do you have any direct competitors?
Airlines operating on the same level with us in eastern sections are Merpati and Airfast Service Indonesia. However, we don’t position ourselves as Merpati’s competitor. Our relationship is more like assisting each other if a problem occurs. For example, if we cannot operate our aircraft to somewhere, Merpati will cover our place and vice versa. Under the national program, we should develop those areas together.
What is Trigana’s key to staying in business?
The key is to keep operating most of our aircraft because down time or idle planes will mean bigger expenses for us than flying them. We just do our best to serve our customers and keep their trust to continue flying with us. Basically, we rely on simple word-of-mouth marketing.
Do you have a favorite story relating to your career so far?
There was an incident once in Papua. One of our planes accidentally ran off the landing strip. There were no victims. Afterward, local people who witnessed the incident, came to our pilots with tears running down their faces. Then one of our pilots asked, “Why are you crying?” One replied that on behalf of the whole community, they would be very saddened if a Trigana plane had an accident or crashed anywhere. “Because if the plane could not reach us anymore, then what were we going to eat?” he said. At that moment I realized that we are actually doing something worthwhile for the community – a sort of a social function. This background makes us work harder to stay on the scene and deliver the goods