Gatari Air Service is a charter Indonesian

airline An airline is a company that provides civil aviation, air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or Airline alliance, alliances with other airlines for ...

which commenced operations in 1983. It was successful during the mid- and late 1980s, but has since declined in size after repaying several debts and having several aircraft seized.

History

Gatari was founded in 1983 with six

Bell 412 The Bell 412 is a utility helicopter of the Huey family manufactured by Bell Helicopter. It is a development of the Bell 212, with the major difference being the composite four-blade main rotor. Design and development Development began in the ...

helicopters; 80 per cent of the company was owned by

Tommy Suharto Hutomo Mandala Putra (born 15 July 1962), commonly known as Tommy Suharto, is an Indonesian businessman, politician, and convicted murderer. The youngest son of Suharto, the second President of Indonesia, he has long had a reputation for nepoti ...

, while the remaining 20 per cent belonged to

Bob Hasan Mohamad "Bob" Hasan (24 February 1931 – 31 March 2020) was an Indonesian businessman, who served briefly as trade and industry minister in 1998 and was later jailed for corruption. He was one of the most prominent ethnic Chinese cronies of lon ...

. The company was part of the Humpuss Group. Its charter acquisition cost Rp 100 million. Most of its clientele originated from the oil industry, and most of its pilots and mechanics were non-Indonesians. After the oil boom in 1985 the company's profits increased greatly, peaking at US$17 million in 1985 before falling to US$13 million in 1986. By 1988 they had surpassed seven other local charter agencies, giving training to pilots at the

Freeport-McMoRan Freeport-McMoRan Inc., often called Freeport, is an American mining company based in the Freeport-McMoRan Center, in Phoenix, Arizona. The company is the world's largest producer of molybdenum, is a major copper producer and operates the world's ...

branch in Papua, and assisting the

Indonesian Air Force The Indonesian Air Force ( id, Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Udara (TNI-AU), literally "''Indonesian National Military-Air Force''") sometimes shortened as IDAF / IdAF, is the aerial branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. The ...

with its exercises. Because of these falling profits, Gatari diversified to include chartered flights for tourists and the wood industry throughout Indonesia, including in

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

, and

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

. They also began hiring more Indonesian pilots and maintenance crews. By 1990 they had a total of 38 aircraft, mostly helicopters, and in 1991 they acquired a Bombardier 601-3A for US$17 million. The company eventually owned three

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...

s, but these were sold in 1999 to repay a debt. In 1992 the company struck a five-year deal with the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations, maintaining twelve helicopters for the ministry, to be returned in 1999. Beginning in May 2000, the Prosecutor General's Office under

Marzuki Darusman Marzuki Darusman (born 26 January 1945) is an Indonesian lawyer and human rights campaigner. After fifteen years as a member of the People's Representative Council with President Suharto's Golkar party, he served the country's prosecutor gene ...

began looking into possible ill dealings between the ministry and Gatari, implicating Sudjono Suryo of the ministry and President Director Kabul Riswanto of Gatari. The case involved fraud of Rp 23.3 billion and the misuse of public funds; Gatari argued that the ministry had not kept its part of the bargain and had caused financial losses to the company. In October 2000 the prosecutor general's office seized three helicopters from the company, two of which were in too poor condition to fly. In 2002 Gatari was one of several helicopter chartering agencies available in Jakarta, charging US$2,250 per hour. Its numbers have since diminished, and as of 2007 Gatari has a fleet of five, with two Indonesian pilots.

Fleet

Current fleet

The Gatari Air Service fleet includes the following aircraft (as of August 2017):

Former fleet

The airline fleet previously included the following aircraft in 2016: * 1 further ATR 42-500 In 2007 the Gatari fleet included the following aircraft:

References

;Footnotes ;Bibliography * * * * * * * * * {{Navbox Airlines of Indonesia Airlines of Indonesia Airlines established in 1983 Indonesian companies established in 1983