It seems that Indonesian national carrier Garuda is planning a big comeback. According to Bali Discovery, the airline is awaiting delivery of 10 Boeing 777-200 ER aircraft, which will enable it to fly to North America. The airline went through a rough patch several years ago, cultivating in being banned from flying in European airspace, as part of a blanket ban on all Indonesian airlines. It probably didn’t deserve to be lumped in with the likes of Adam Air, but it did take the action as a wake-up call to get its maintenance processes certified by an international agency and update its fleet.
I’ve been flying Garuda domestic flights several times a year for the past five years, and I have to say they aren’t all that bad. They have a long way to go to rival the likes of Singapore Airlines, but I’ve been on domestic full-fare flights in the US that were worse.
Be that as it may, I somehow doubt “It’s not as bad as you think” is going to be their new slogan for the US market.