Garuda Indonesia began its first commercial services during the independence campaign under the name "Indonesian Airways" using a DC3 aircraft named "Seulawah" (Gold Mountain) donated by the people of Aceh. Since then, through "Seulawah" and several other aircrafts, Garuda has served the country and played vital role in Indonesian airline service.

Garuda Indonesia commitment to total quality improvement in the area of service, safety, on-time departures and load factors has brought the company to a period of dynamic and successful change in providing safe, comfortable and reliable air transportation services. The change has successfully improve Garuda Indonesia performance of positive cash flow and operating profit tendency.

Future business challenge trend shows significant increase of complexity and difficulty that demands smart application of tactics and strategy by airline company to overcome such problem. In order to cope with Globalization era and survived in the business, Garuda Indonesia is seriously determined to prepare its privatization issue in the near future.

It is our sincere hope that through such efforts Garuda will remain a source of great national pride for Indonesia, and that we will continue to be one of Asia's most respected airlines.

Garuda Indonesia can claim a more dramatic birth than most national carriers. When, in 1948, its first aircraft, a DC3, was acquired, the Indonesian people were still locked in a bitter struggle for independence from the colonial Dutch. Soon after acquisition, the DC3 was flown to India for a complete overhaul.

The first flight of Seulawah in Indonesian Airways livery was on January 26, 1949, a date that later was to be recognized as the airline’s official birthday. That flight took it to Rangoon, on contract, for use by the Burmese government in military operations.
During the final year of the struggle for independence, Seulawah was joined by two other DC3s (RI-007 and 009) and all three were to make daring blockade-breaking flights to Sumatra in support of the revolution. Then came Seulawah’s triumphal flight from Yogyakarta to Jakarta on December 28, 1949.

Three months later on March 31, 1950, Garuda Indonesian Airways was officially incorporated. Later that year, in recognition of the help it had received, the airline presented the government of Burma with a RI-007 as a gift from the people of Indonesia.

By the end of 1950, Garuda had 38 aircraft - 22 DC3s, eight Catalian seaplanes and eight Convair 240s. In 1953, the fleet grew to 46 with the addition of eight Convair 340s, and a year later 14 De Havilland Herons were added. The Catalina were taken out of service in 1955.
In 1956 Garuda carried pilgrims to Mecca for the first time. In 1961, turbo-prop Lockheed Electras joined the fleet, enabling the launch of a service to Hong Kong. In 1965, Garuda began flying to Europe, terminating at Amsterdam. The following year, delivery was taken of Garuda’s first jet, a DC8.

In 1969, Fokker F-27 turboprop aircraft went into service on domestic routes and two DC9s were delivered. Two jet F28s were added in 1971 and by 1980 Garuda had 24 DC9s and 33 F28s. The first of its DC10s were delivered in 1976, and the first of six Boeing 747-200s arrived in 1980. Then in 1983, came the A300 Airbuses, followed at the end of the 80s and early 90s by A300-600, B737-300s, MD11s and B737-400s.

During the 1980s, Garuda’s fleet and operations underwent significant rationalization and restructuring in a period of unprecedented global civil aviation growth, and much greater emphasis was placed on the need for in-house servicing and Indonesia-based staff training.

As a result, the Garuda maintenance Facility at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and the Garuda Training Centre in west Jakarta were introduced.
By the early 1990s, Garuda’s future strategy was already looking beyond 2000. Its fleet of Boeing 737-300/400s was increasing in number and long-haul Boeing 747-400s were on order. At the time, Garuda Indonesia was amongst the 30 largest airlines in the world.

From the beginning of 2005 a new management team began charting the future of Garuda Indonesia. Under the new management, a complete re-evaluation and restructuring of the company have been taking place with the objective of improving operational efficiency, re-building financial strength, heightening customer responsiveness, and most importantly, renewing and refreshing the spirit of Garuda Indonesia.

For Garuda Indonesia, service is one of the important key performance indicators for its operations. Strategic measures that involve restructuring the entire service chain underline the airline’s commitment to be a customer-driven, full-service airline.
Garuda Indonesia is now operating 51 aircraft that include three B-747-400s, six A-330-300s, and 37 B-737s (300, 400, 500 and 800s) and currently flies to 42 domestic and international destinations.

The history of Garuda Indonesia’s 34 Fokker F-28 aircraft was a long one. These planes joined Garuda Indonesia’s fleet in September 1971 and ended their loyal service on 5 April 2001. And even then, they were not allowed to rest; they were put to work for several years with Citilink, a low cost carrier for the middle- to low-end market established by Garuda Indonesia. For the 29 years and seven months of their service, the Fokker F-28s were not only the main contributor to Garuda Indonesia’s earnings, but also helped to unite the archipelago.

The idea of bringing Fokker F-28 aircraft into Garuda Indonesia begin in 1968, when Wiweko Supono was appointed President Director of Garuda Indonesia, then still known as Garuda Indonesia Airways.
Wiweko recognized that Garuda Indonesia still had limitations in many areas’ finances, personnel, and especially its fleet, which at that time consisted of only 17 Dakota DC-3s, eight Convair 340s, three Lockheed Electras, three Convair 990-As, and a single DC-8.

Wiweko had a vision that every large city in Indonesia should be visited by a Garuda Indonesia plane each day. But obviously it was difficult to land in 26 major cities each day with a fleet comprised of 90% propeller-driven aircraft. With this in mind, Wiweko sold the DC-8 and replaced it with 12 Fokker F-27s. His reasoning was that the turboprop Fokker F-27s would make it easier for Garuda Indonesia’s pilots to make the transition to Fokker F-28s. But as the market continued to develop, even these were not enough, and so in 1969-1970 Garuda Indonesia bought turbofan (jet) engine Fokker F 28s.

In anticipation of the arrival of the Fokker F-28s, Garuda Indonesia started preparing ground crew and air crew, and sent eight pilot candidates to Amsterdam for training, along with two copilot candidates and an engineer. Their abilities were quite good, and they were certified as Fokker F-28 pilot captains on completion of the training.

In August 1971, the first plane was flown to Indonesia by one of the new Garuda Indonesia pilots, accompanied by two pilots from the aircraft factory. Taking off from Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, it stopped over in Teheran, Karachi, Calcutta, and Bangkok before finally arriving in Jakarta. This Fokker F-28 series MK-1000 (PK-GJZ) landed at Kemayoran airport at 10 AM on 11 August.

Several days later, it began a five-day tour around Indonesia to test landing strips. The route was Jakarta - Bandung - Semarang - Surabaya - Denpasar - Ujung Pandang - Kupang - Ambon - Halmahera - Manado - Gorontalo - Balikpapan – Banjarmasin - Pontianak - Tanjung Pinang - Medan - Aceh - Medan - Pekanbaru - Padang - Palembang - Jakarta. The mission was a success, as the Fokker F-28 was able to land on all the runways, even those that were grass or gravel. Following this successful trial run, commercial flights began in September of that year.

In total, 62 units of the three versions of Fokker F-28 aircraft were flown by Garuda Indonesia, owning 34 of them, was the worldÕs biggest user of this type of plane.

After the Indonesian government decided to join Garuda Indonesia and Merpati Nusantara in 1977, 17 Fokker F-28 MK-3000 were donated to Merpati Nusantara in the early 1980s.

The Fokker F-28s were the backbone of Garuda Indonesia, and played a highly significant role in the airline’s history. It was in these planes that the pilots of those days gained much of their flight experience. In 1984, its ownership of so many Fokker F-28s gained Garuda Indonesia a position as the second largest air fleet in the Asia-Pacific (after Japan Airlines), with a fleet of nearly 80 modern aircraft in that era.

Garuda Indonesia’s history has a close connection with the history of the nation’s struggles. Garuda Indonesia began its first commercial services under the name “Indonesian Airways”. It was during a time of change and upheaval for the country, which was struggling to maintain its independence.

The company’s first aircraft, a DC3 named Seulawah (Gold Mountain) was donated by the people of Aceh to help in the campaign for independence, and it played a vital role in the struggle.

More recently, Garuda Indonesia, along with the country as a whole, has undergone a period of dynamic change. Garuda Indonesia has continued its efforts to improve its services and to provide safe comfortable and reliable air transportation services.

Through those efforts, Garuda Indonesia has now succeeded in improving its performance in the areas of on-time departures, load factors and yield, and the company recently returned to a position of positive cash flow and operating profit.

Garuda Indonesia also realizes that the business challenges of the future will be increasingly complex and difficult. Consequently, Garuda Indonesia is determined to improve its quality in all aspects of the company’s activities, and to prepare for privatization which will be realized in the near future.

Through these efforts it is our sincere hope that Garuda Indonesia will remain a source of great national pride for Indonesia, and that we will continue to be one of Asia’s most respected airlines.