GARUDA INDONESIA

It was nearly 3 months ago when my boss asked me to fetch him at Jogja airport which i reluctantly did that for the sake of my job sustainability..hehehe. I noticed that Garuda Indonesia, the airline he flied with, would arrive at 08.05, i was thinking that it was going to be 5-10 minutes late. But amazingly it touched the runway at 08.05 ON THE DOT. Well no wonder, Garuda Indonesia has won numerous awards for its flights over the years, including the Indonesian Best Brand Award, the Best "On Time" Airline at Schiphol International Airport in Amsterdam and a Customer Satisfaction award from the Marketing Research Institute Frontier and Business magazine International.

Garuda Indonesia, used to be the pride of Asia

Many doubt that Garuda Indonesia will resume to be the best airline, like it was years ago, many also question show pesimism on the plan of Garuda Indonesia to compete with other world class airline such as Emirates, Singapore Airline, or KLM. (Sorry, i do not mention American-based airlines coz they're too profit-oriented, and somehow unsafe, many complained over their customer service, accute delays, and many more)

In the 90's, Garuda Indonesia was among the 5-stars airlines in the world, it was when Garuda flied to every corner of the world and even some unveiled spots like....GUAM !
When economy worsened in the end of 90's, Garuda was one of the most hit by the monetary crisis, and forced to sell the aircrafts to.....pay the debt, which continued by route-cuts, job-cuts, and blown by the high competition with domestic airlines which offered low fare.

So, during the period of 2002-2006, Garuda booked slightly over $120 million in net loss, and it got worse when oil price was skyrocketing during that period of time. Well, it was peanut compared to Malaysia Airline which booked $414 million in net loss in 2005 alone, or Thai airways which posted $ 143 million in net loss in Q3 of 2005 alone.

Now, Garuda Indonesia is fully alive and KICKING ! There are some good news about garuda which make it easier to pave the way to be among world's powerful airlines ( now we are among 30 biggest airline in the world).

Here we are :
1. In 2007, Garuda booked a net profit at $ 26 million, not bad at all, especially when most of airlines in the world still wrote their endless loss stories. This led Garuda management to plan to expand the operation, adding new routes to Australia, China, Central Asia, and Middle East, , resuming flight to US and Europe, and strengtening position in Southeast Asia. I personally hope that they will fly to Moskva too.

2. Garuda Indonesia has earned IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) safety certification from the International Air Transport Association (IATA). This has made Garuda. With this acknowledgement, Garuda becomes the only operator in Indonesia who have fulfilled the standards of safety established by IOSA and IATA.

Garuda indonesia is still way above many airlines in terms of safety issue, i googled and found this :
1. Aeroflot 21 cases
2. Air Canada 4 cases
3. Air France 6 cases
4. American Airline 12 cases
5. Bristish Airways 4 cases
6. China Airline 8 cases
7. Delta Airline 4 cases
8. Japan Airline 4 cases
9. KLM 4 cases
10. Korean Airline 14 cases
11. Pan Am 14 cases
12. Qantas 9 cases
13. SAS 3
14. Swisair 4 cases
15. TWA 17 cases
16. United Airline 13 cases
17. US Airways 6 cases

Garuda ? only 1 case. yipeeee !


3. Garuda Indonesia has followed up its recent move into profitability by announcing plans to purchase 10 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft worth an estimated US$2 billion to support route expansion plans to Europe, US, the Middle East and the rest of Asia. It is important to underline that the purchase plans for the new Boeing 777-300ER will have no impact on existing plans to acquire 10 Boeing 787 Dreamliner for their fleet in 2012, as i already wrote about this in my previous article.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner..(Watch your back, Airbus A380 !)

The wide body Boeing 777-300

Also, this year Garuda will begin receiving 50 units of Boeing 737-800 aircraft which will strengthen Garuda position in regional and domestic market.

Newly purchased, Boeing 737-800 ER


4. Expansion of airports in Indonesia.
Jakarta, Bali, Medan, Makassar, Bandung, will have new terminals and new airports. Bali plans to add new runway and international terminal to the existing old terminal and single runway. Medan will soon move its troubled airport to a new world-class airport in Kuala Namu. Makassar has silently move to new airport. Jakarta has announced that its Terminal 3 will be operated by the end of 2008. It's said that Jakarta Int'l airport will be able to accomodate 58 million passenger by 2015. Of coz, this will make a good way for Garuda to achieve its goals.

Now being built, Kuala Namu Airport - Medan (North Sumatra)

Soekarno Hatta Airport Terminal 3 (Jakarta), should be ready by the end of 2008

Pekanbaru new airport.