The story
Susi Air was established in late 2004 by Christian von Strombeck, who worked as Director of Operations, and his wife Susi Pudjiastuti, it was originally set up to transport the fisheries cargo of sister company PT ASI Pudjiastuti, because land transportation to Jakarta took around 12 hours, too long to maintain the freshness of the company's marine produce as they make their way into restaurants and merchants.
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake triggered devastating tsunamis along the Western coast of Sumatra. The two new Cessna Grand Caravans that had just been ordered by Susi Air were very quickly pressed into service transporting equipment and medicine for aid agencies. A Susi Air aircraft was the first plane to land in Aceh after the tsunami. During 2005 Susi's planes were chartered by NGOs in Aceh, rapidly grossing sufficient money for Susi Air to buy a new plane in 2006. This third Grand Caravan enabled the company to begin scheduled services out of Medan, capital of North Sumatra. In late 2006, this aircraft was moved to Jayapura, Papua, to establish a base in what is one of the more challenging flying environments in the world.
A fourth Grand Caravan was added to the fleet in early 2007 along with the addition of a new type, the Diamond Twin Star, for use on charter flights as well as opening up the possibility for Susi Air to train their own pilots. By the end of 2007 four additional Grand Caravans had been added to the fleet, along with the addition of two Pilatus Turbo Porters.
In 2008 a Diamond Star was added to the fleet for use by the Susi Flying School based at the company headquarters in Pangandaran, West Java, thus furthering the company's commitment to train local pilots. The ninth Grand Caravan arrived in May continuing the steady growth of the company. September 2008 saw the arrival of the tenth Grand Caravan. In October, the Diamond Star aircraft suffered an engine failure and successfully made a forced landing near Bandung. The first Garmin G1000 cockpit Grand Caravan arrived in April 2009, with another following shortly after. July 2009 saw the arrival of the first Piaggio Avanti.
Susi Air is known within Indonesia for hiring its pilots from overseas, mainly from Western countries, due to a lack of Indonesian born and trained pilots. The country has strict rules regarding the number of foreign professionals any one company can employ. In a news article in 2011 Susi Pujiastuti stated that out of her 179 pilots, 175 were from overseas. Susi Air and its pilots were also documented in a documentary series called "Worst Place to be a Pilot", regarding the dangerous routes and runways that pilots experience.
From Wikipedia’s article on Susi Air, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4