Garuda Indonesia

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Garuda Indonesia

IATA GA	ICAO GIA	Callsign Indonesia
Founded		1949 (as Garuda Indonesian Airways)
Hubs		Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Ngurah Rai Airport Juanda International Airport
Frequent flyer program		Garuda Frequent Flyer
Member lounge		Garuda Lounge
Fleet size		62
Destinations		47
Parent company		Garuda Indonesia
Headquarters		Jakarta, Indonesia
Key people		Emirsyah Satar (President and CEO)
Website		www.garuda-indonesia.com/

Garuda Indonesia is the national airline of Indonesia, based in Jakarta. Garuda is the name of the mythical bird found on Pancasila, the national seal of the government of Indonesia. It operates domestic services to 30 destinations and international services to over 20 destinations in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Europe. Its main base is Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta, with a hub at Ngurah Rai Airport, Bali.

1 Code Data
2 History
3 Services
4 Fleet
5 External links

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Code Data

IATA Code: GA
ICAO Code: GIA
Callsign: Indonesia

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History

Garuda Indonesia traces its beginning to the late 1940s, during the Indonesian war of independence against the Dutch. At this time, Garuda flew special transports with Douglas DC-3 aircraft. January 26, 1949 is generally recognized as the airline's birthday. At that time, the airline was known as Garuda Indonesian Airways. Their first plane was known as Seulawah or Gold Mountain. The airline kept performing in support of the Indonesian interests until the revolution against the Dutch was over.

The government of Burma helped the airline much during the airline's beginnings. Because of that, after the airline was formally incorporated jointly with KLM as a company on March 31, 1950, the airline presented the Burmese government with a DC-3. By 1953, the airline had 46 planes, but by 1955 their Catalina aircraft were retired. In 1956 they made their first pilgrim flight to the city of Mecca.

The 1960s were times of great progress for the airline: In 1961, a route was opened to Kai Tak International Airport in Hong Kong. After concentrating on domestic and regional services, the first flights to Europe were added on 28 September 1963 to Amsterdam and Frankfurt. In 1965, the jet age arrived, with a Douglas DC-8 that was used to fly to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.

The 1970s brought McDonnell Douglas DC-9 equipment, while the 1980s brought Airbus equipment such as the Airbus A300 and Airbus A300-600 as well as Boeing 737s, Boeing 747s, and McDonnell Douglas MD-11s.

In the 1990s, Garuda suffered plane crashes, and the airline went through a period of economic distress. In July 1995 it began a joint cargo service with KLM between Amsterdam and Jakarta with stops in Bombay and Kuala Lumpur. However, the airline has favourably recovered from economic problems and seems to be in good economic shape entering the middle 2000s. In 2001 a low-cost airline subsidiary, Citilink, was established to provide shuttle services between Indonesian cities.

It is wholly owned by the Indonesian government and employs 6,251 staff (at January 2005).

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Services

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Flights to Europe operated through codeshare with Malaysia Airlines

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Oceania

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Fleet

The Garuda Indonesia fleet consists of the following aircraft (at November 2005):

A large number of aircraft have been disposed of including 13 Airbus A300, 15 Boeing 737-300, 28 Boeing 747-200 and 12 McDonnell Douglas MD-11.

The Garuda Indonesia fleet consists of the following aircraft (at November 2005): 6 Airbus A330-300 13 Boeing 737-300 26 Boeing 737-400 5 Boeing 737-500 5 McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30 3 Boeing 747-400

A large number of aircraft have been disposed of including 13 Airbus A300, 15 Boeing 737-300, 28 Boeing 747-200 and 12 McDonnell Douglas MD-11.

Garuda is one of the customer of the Boeing 787 and the 737NG

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