, abbreviated to '''Garuda Indonesia''', is the national
Airline of the Republic of
Indonesia , based in
Jakarta .
Garuda is the name of the mythical bird found on
Pancasila the national seal of the government of Indonesia. In Indian,
Vedic tradition, Garuda is the flight carrier of Lord
Vishnu . The airline 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 .
- IATA Code:
- ICAO Code:
- Callsign: Indonesia
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 a
DC-3 known as ''Seulawah'' or ''Gold Mountain'', the money to buy the plane was contributed by the
Acehnese people especially the merchant, the plane was bought for a total sum of 120,000
Malayan Dollar which is the same with 20 kg of
Gold . 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 , 8
Convair 340 and 3
Convair 440 In
1961 and in late
1965 two types of aircraft were introduced that comprises of 3
Convair 990 jet plane and also 3
Lockheed L-188 Electra , 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 flights to Europe were expanded with flights to
Rome &
Paris via
Bombay &
Cairo , the European route were wholly operated by
Convair 990 jet plane. Also in that year flights to China were commenced, with Garuda flying to
Canton via
Phnom Penh . 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 and
Fokker F28 jets which at one point Garuda owned 36 of them
(which made Garuda the largest operator of F.28 at that time), while the
1980 s brought
Airbus equipment such as the
Airbus A300 and
Airbus A300-600 as well as
Boeing 737 s,
Boeing 747 s, and
McDonnell Douglas MD-11 s.
In the
1990 s, 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 (as of January
2005 ).
See Also: Garuda Indonesia destinations
The Garuda Indonesia fleet consists of the following aircraft (April
2006 ):
- Boeing 747-400 3
- Airbus 330-300 6
- Boeing 737-800 2
- Boeing 737-400 26
- Boeing 737-300 17
- Boeing 737-500 5
