Garuda Indonesia
Garuda Indonesia is the flag carrier of Indonesia, headquartered at Soekarno–Hatta International Airport near Jakarta. A successor of KLM Interinsulair Bedrijf, it is a member of SkyTeam airline alliance and the second-largest airline of Indonesia after Lion Air, operating scheduled flights to a number of destinations across Asia, Europe, and Australia from its hubs, focus cities, as well as other cities for Hajj. It is the only Indonesian airline that flies to European airspace.
At its peak from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, Garuda operated an extensive network of flights all over the world, with regularly scheduled services to Adelaide, Cairo, Fukuoka, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, and other cities in Europe, Australia and Asia. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a series of financial and operational difficulties hit the airline hard, causing it to drastically cut back services. In 2009, the airline undertook a five-year modernization plan known as the Quantum Leap, which overhauled the airline's brand, livery, logo and uniforms, as well as acquiring a newer, more modern fleet and facilities and renewing focus on international markets. It earned Garuda awards such as Most Improved Airline, 5-Star Airline, and World's Best Cabin Crew by Skytrax. Garuda has since fallen back into financial difficulties exacerbated by corruption. However, it has maintained its service and safety standards. The top management was replaced in 2020, and a new restructuring programme is also underway.
Garuda also operated a budget subsidiary, Citilink, that provided low-cost flights to multiple Indonesian destinations and was spun-off in 2012. In November 2018, the airline took over operations as well as financial management of Sriwijaya Air by a cooperation agreement ; the contract expired in December 2019.
History
Beginnings (1949–60s)
The predecessor to Garuda Indonesia was a KLM subsidiary, KLM Interinsulair Bedrijf, which was nationalized in December 1949.In its current institutional form, Garuda Indonesia had its beginnings in the Indonesian war of independence against the Dutch in the late 1940s, when Garuda flew special transports with a Douglas DC-3. The first aircraft was a DC-3 known as Seulawah and was purchased for 120,000 Malayan dollars, which was provided by the people of Aceh. The first commercial flight from Calcutta to Yangon was on 26 January 1949, using a DC-3 Dakota aircraft with the tail number RI 001 and the name Indonesian Airways. 26 January 1949 is generally recognized as the airline's founding date.
File:Douglas DC-8-55, Garuda Indonesia JP6839308.jpg|thumb|A Garuda Indonesian Airways Douglas DC-8-55 at Kai Tak Airport in 1967|alt=A Garuda Indonesia Douglas DC-8 at Kai Tak Airport in 1967, showing an older livery
The name Garuda is taken from the Hindu tradition: it is the name of Lord Vishnu's mount and was introduced in 1949. During the Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference at The Hague, from 23 August to 2 November 1949, Indonesian President Sukarno cited a Dutch poem by a renowned Javanese scholar and poet Raden Mas Noto Soeroto: "Ik ben Garuda, Vishnoe's vogel, die zijn vleugels uitslaat hoog boven uw eilanden", which means "I'm Garuda, Vishnu's Bird, that spreads its wings high above the Islands". The first flight under the name Garuda Indonesian Airways was made with a second DC-3 entering service in 1949. Its first flight under the new name was to pick up Sukarno in Yogyakarta on 28 December.
Throughout the revolution, Garuda supported national interests and often carried diplomats on its flights. The Burmese government helped the airline significantly during its beginnings. The country's national airline, Union of Burma Airways, often chartered one of the airline's DC-3s for its own flights. Accordingly, upon Garuda's formal joint incorporation with KLM on 31 March 1950, the airline gave the Burmese government a DC-3.
By the early and mid-1950s, the airline operated a fleet of 38 aircraft, including 22 DC-3s, 8 Catalina seaplanes, and 8 Convair 240s. In 1956, the airline operated its first flight to Mecca with Convair aircraft, carrying 40 Indonesian pilgrims.
Garuda's fleet continued to grow throughout the 1960s, during which the airline continued its expansion. It acquired three Lockheed L-188 Electras in 1961, which supplemented its Convair CV-240 fleet, before taking delivery of its first jet aircraft, the Convair 990 Coronado, in 1963, which allowed it to launch flights to Hong Kong.
In 1965, the airline took delivery of its first Douglas DC-8, and grew beyond the Asian market it was focused on, beginning scheduled flights from Kemayoran Airport to Amsterdam and Frankfurt via Colombo, Bombay, and Prague. Rome and Paris became the airline's third and fourth European destinations, with flights stopping in Bombay and Cairo to refuel. Flights to the People's Republic of China began that same year, with service to Guangzhou via Phnom Penh, the first Indonesian airline to do so.
Continued growth (1970s–90s)
During the early 1970s, Garuda Indonesian Airways took delivery of both the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 and Fokker F28 Fellowship for its short and medium-haul operations. The airline went on to take delivery of 62 F28s, holding the title of the largest operator of the F28 in the world. In 1976, Garuda took delivery of its first McDonnell Douglas DC-10, giving it the capability to carry more passengers and fly longer flights, and replacing the DC-8 and Convair 990 fleet on flights within Asia and to Europe. The DC-10 became an integral part of the Garuda fleet for the years to come, outlasting the newer McDonnell Douglas MD-11s, before the type was finally retired in 2002. In 1980, the airline took delivery of the first Boeing 747-200, complementing the DC-10 on high-capacity or long-range routes.On 21 June 1982, Garuda became the launch customer of the Airbus A300 B4-220FFCC, the first variant of the A300 capable of being operated with two pilots instead of three. By 1984, nine of these were in service, supplemented by 8 McDonnell Douglas DC-10s, 24 DC-9s, 45 Fokker F-28s, and 6 Boeing 747-200s. In 1985, under Reyn Altin Johannes Lumenta, who had been CEO since 1984, Garuda Indonesian Airways made the controversial decision to hire foreign brand consultants Landor Associates to create a new logo, livery and brand, a project regarded as expensive and unnecessary at the time but later applauded as vital for Garuda's reputation and corporate identity as the national airline.
Under Lumenta, Garuda Indonesia also increased the number of flight frequencies and destinations, reduced ticket prices and collaborated with Merpati Nusantara Airlines, introducing flexible tickets valid for both Indonesian airlines.
In 1991, Garuda took delivery of the McDonnell Douglas MD-11s, which gradually replaced the DC-10 on flights to Europe and allowed the airline to launch flights to Los Angeles via Honolulu. During this time, the airline operated a fleet of the aforementioned MD-11s, DC-10s, Boeing 747, Airbus A300 and Boeing 737-400, operating it to destinations throughout Asia, Europe and North America. In 1994, Garuda took delivery of its first Boeing 747-400 aircraft, which became a mainstay of its fleet until 2015, operating Hajj flights and high-density short-haul routes, while the delivery of the first Airbus A330-300 in 1996 allowed more flexibility, as it was more fuel-efficient than the three- and four-engine jets. That same year, Garuda placed an order for six Boeing 777 aircraft, due for delivery in 2000, but a new series of challenges and difficulties were about to hit the airline.