ferd57

From eTurboNews:

"A new partner to be officially confirmed soon is Indonesia’s national carrier Garuda. “We are very pleased to support the candidacy of Garuda, a long-standing partner of us in Asia,” explained Peter Hartman, president and CEO of KLM. “In our last meeting, we decided to support Garuda’s process into Skyteam in conjunction with Korean Air and Delta Air Lines."


http://www.eturbonews.com/12992/skyt...ts-forces-asia


It looks like Garuda is spending 100 million next year on improvements and new aircraft. http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2...-aircraft.html

Should add some destinations in south east asia.

N830MH

I thought GA has been still on banned flying to EU? I think GA has been already withdrawn EU bans listed. So I rather that GA will be more improvable the safety regulations and better utilizations aircraft. I don't believe GA will eventually to joins into Skyteam for next few years later in 2011 timelines.

irishguy28

Indeed, Garuda was recently removed from the EU's blacklist; they are to begin longhaul services again on June 1 next, with a flight to AMS via DXB.

It was also recently reported that they have once more received permission to fly to the United States which they have not served since 1998; however, as their focus on developing long haul is primarily on Europe, they will not fly to the States again until 2012 at the earliest.

Supersonic Swinger

Currently in Jakarta and there are a few billboards up announcing the upcoming A330 service to Amsterdam. I had read that the CEO of Garuda wants to get the airline up to a Skytrax 5 star rating and the A330 will have a flat-bed in business class, but I think they still have a way to go to fix their safety reputation. Singapore Airlines flights to here are packed to the rafters, and when there is no seat availability even the locals recommend that you try one of the discount carriers such as Jetstar or Tiger rather than fly on Garuda.

UA Fan

This trully is the whats leftover alliance.

elitetraveler

Czech Air, China Southern, Kenya, Alitalia, Aeroflot?

UMD

The new A332 and the new B738 have one of the best products in the region. The new horizontal lie flat seats with 74" pitch on its A332 even beat SQ's new regional business class seats in terms of space and comfort.

The locals who recommend Jetstar or Tiger over Garuda are those people who only fly LCC and will only fly if they can snatch a low enough fare on the internet 6 to 9 months in advance.

Most Indonesian business people will now fly Garuda as well. It is true that Garuda still has ways to go to compete with SQ which has dominated the International flights out of Indonesia for years. But if my flight with Garuda last week was any indication, do not be surprised that Garuda will catch up with SQ wihtin the next several years. Being an SQ Solitaire, I was very impressed with both the new hardware and the software of Garuda. So, I would say good on GA to be accepted into an alliance.

I can't understand those who talks down on Skyteam either. There is nothing wrong with the member airlines in Skyteam. United and USAirways are not much better than Delta / Northwest. I actually prefer Delta / Northwest over United and USAirways anyday and I am a *G. Lufthansa is very similar to Air France / KLM. What's wrong with Czech, Aeroflot, and China Southern? *A has Egypt Air, Air China (worse service than China Southern), and LOT. So every alliance surely has good and bad members.

N830MH

Yes, they are all already joins the SkyTeam.

STelite

I posted in a previous thread "Skyteams force in Asia" but I guess i'll mention it here as well, I think Skyteam should have lured in members like CI and MH who already have a strong presence in Asia especialy south east asia where Skyteam lacks a presence and who also connect to all major Skyteam hubs. Instead they are making Garuda a new partner who's destinations are extremely limited. They may be able to compete with SQ down the road but I don't think they should bank on it too much. I mean from what I've heard CI and MH have already applied or have at least expressed interest in joining, I just don't know what the hold up is?

Supersonic Swinger

Not really, they are locals who fly SQ and when seats on SQ are not available, they recommend the LCCs because "you really don't want to trust Garuda".

GUWonder

SkyTeam's incumbent members have a history of showing they prefer relative losers to relative winners. Given that history, it's no surprise that Garuda would be fast-tracked while MH would face resistance.

Fims

^

Supersonic Swinger

Garuda might make more sense in terms of passenger feed. Among ASEAN economies, Malaysia is lagging and has only beaten out the Philippines in terms of economic growth over the last 10 years (http://thejakartaglobe.com/home/stag...economy/344959). Adding Garuda adds the fourth most populous nation in the world to SkyTeam's base - lower GDP per capita but rising fast and therefore likely growth in travel.

UMD

^ Agree. I was just about to argue the same point. Also, CGK traffic is ranked no. 3 in SEA (or no. 25 in the world) after BKK and Singapore while KUL is not even in TOP 30 globally. See this World Top 30 Airport list. I understand this may be due to domestic traffic. Nevertheless it provides a strong enough case for Skyteam to see the potential in Garuda that GA is prioritized into Skyteam membership over MH.

For some funny reasons, I also suspect that MH may have been too proud of itself to accept terms and conditions put forward by Skyteam.

I do feel sorry for these locals. They should really give the new Garuda a try. Well only time will tell, I guess. Now we know why SQ and MI (the subsidiary) are the most popular International airlines out of Indonesia (and not just CGK).

By the way, I also know some locals who would rather fly SQ than QF from CGK to Australia although that is not the most convenient route.

skyteamelite

If this goes ahead as reported in the article, I guess there'll be no hope for MH to join ST at any point :-(