Garuda Indonesia to fly direct to London in May

LIVERPOOL. National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will fly from Jakarta to London, the United Kingdom, from May 29 this year, after canceling the plan last year due to infrastructural problems.

The publicly listed company’s president director, Emirsyah Satar, said after announcing a new sponsorship deal with Liverpool FC here on Monday that the new route was part of Garuda’s bid to join the ranks of global players.

Following the maiden flight to London, Garuda will fly to the British capital five times a week. Marketing director of the company, Erik Meijer, added that preparations for the London route were being finalized.

“The aircraft will arrive at the end of April,” he said. Garuda initially planned to commence its London flights on Nov. 2 last year.

Garuda has ordered 10 B777-300 Extended Range (ER) with a price tag of US$150 million to be delivered in phases until 2015.

However, it was forced to postpone the plan in August because the runways at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, from where the planes would depart, were not equipped to handle the large B777-300ER flying at full capacity.

For the non-stop 14-hour Jakarta-London flights, the airline initially expected to operate the B777-300ER aircraft at full capacity with 314 passengers and 11 tons of cargo, with a takeoff weight of 351 tons.

But Soekarno-Hatta International Airport’s runways can only tolerate a maximum takeoff weight of 329.37 tons.

As a result, Garuda earlier said, it would use its four Triple Seven jumbo jets to fly to East Asian destinations — such as Shanghai in China, Seoul in South Korea and Tokyo in Japan — to reduce takeoff weight by reducing the amount of fuel.

London will add to Garuda’s European destinations after Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Flights to Italy and Germany are next on Garuda’s agenda.

As part of its worldwide campaign, Garuda will join the Skyteam global alliance on March 5, becoming the 20th member of the group.

The integration will give Garuda access to 1,024 destinations in 178 countries around the globe.

Garuda and three other Indonesian airlines were banned from flying in European airspace in 2007 following a series of fatal accidents plaguing the national aviation industry.

The ban was lifted in 2009 in recognition of improvements to safety standards, and one year later Garuda resumed flights to Europe.

The company signed code sharing agreements with 11 international airlines, including the United Arab Emirates’ Etihad Airways last year that allow the Indonesian airline to fly to 80 destinations worldwide.

To strengthen both its domestic and international services, Garuda brought in 27 new planes last year, expanding its fleet to 131. (Dwi Atmanta,The Jakarta Post).