Saudi Arabian Airlines and Garuda Indonesia have agreed to set up a high-level task force to explore prospects of expanding cooperation, in terms of improving services to passengers, especially Haj and Umrah pilgrims, said Abdul Aziz Al-Hazmi, CEO of Saudia while speaking to Arab News.

He said he had met with Emirsyah Satar, president and CEO of Garuda, in the resort island of Bali on the sidelines of festivities marking the Indonesian airline’s admission to SkyTeam as the alliance’s 20th member.

“We had very fruitful discussions,” the CEO said while describing Garuda as an important member of the global alliance. “Being a SkyTeam member we can now codeshare with Garuda and work together in ground handling and utilizing various resources, most importantly in coordinating flight schedules to provide a convenient schedule for our passengers,” he said.

Al-Hazmi added: “We have got another opportunity, we can now cooperate beyond Saudi Arabia to take Garuda passengers to destinations in Africa, GCC, US and Europe and Saudia passengers beyond Indonesia to reach Australia for example, where we have a large community.”

The Saudia CEO emphasized the importance of joining an alliance for airlines to reduce their expenditures. “Self expansion for airlines will be very expensive and may not be feasible economically. By joining an alliance, on the other hand, they can make use of the huge network that offers passengers easy access to destinations all over the world providing seamless travel, especially to destinations to which they are not operating flights,” he said.

“We can also make use of the best practices of other airlines. This will give us new ideas to improve services and solve problems. Before joining the alliance we have to abide by certain standards. We have started providing various SkyTeam services to passengers such as SkyPriority,” Al-Hazmi said.

Saudia’s SkyTeam Manager Ali Bondagjy was also present in Bali to attend the Garuda welcoming event. Speaking to Arab News, he said Garuda’s joinining of the alliance would help Saudia expand its network, especially in the Fareast and Southeast Asia region. “This market is very important for us, especially there are a lot of Muslim pilgrims who travel to Saudi Arabia.”

He described Garuda as one of the most improved airlines in the region offering innovative and attractive products to passengers. “They will be an added value for SkyTeam experience. I am sure other members of the alliance will certainly learn from them,” he told Arab News.

Bondagjy also spoke about competitions between SkyTeam members. “Even though we are in one alliance, competition among them will continue, but in a more healthy way. Each will be stronger in their specific region and we feed each other and this is a healthy competition.”

Asked whether members fear passengers shifting to other airlines after enjoying their services, he said: “We consider all passengers as SkyTeam customers regardless of from which airline they bought the tickets and we try to have consistency in services.”

He said the strategic focus of the alliance would be on customers and improving services as declared by SkyTeam Managing Director Michael Wisbrun.

“Saudia believes that we have benefited a lot after joining the alliance and there is more to come. We interact with the SkyTeam family and exchange benefits. We benefit from the best practices of other members and increasing revenue and sales, improving our customer experience and products. We would like to maximize our benefits in all terms,” he explained.

Bondagjy said Saudia passengers are fully aware of their rights as a SkyTeam member. “They know they can earn mileages through Alfursan by traveling on other member airlines, and our marketing efforts through the social media has played a big role in achieving this goal.”