This is the ninth timetable change for Garuda Indonesia this year in Europe, a change which comes into effect on 1 October. The previous eight changes affected the Jakarta-Londontwice cancelled, proposed with a stopover at Amsterdamthen transformed into a Bali-Jakarta route, and finally transformed into a London-Medan and Bali flight in September.
Garuda has just done the same to Amsterdam. Next week, the airline will cease its Jakarta service and replace it with an Amsterdam-Medan-Bali flight. A surprise for business passengers travelling to the Indonesian capital, who will therefore have to wait and change planes in Medan.
The problem will arise for passengers travelling to other destinations in Indonesia, such as Surabaya, Semarang or Makassar, major business and commercial cities. Garuda's network in Medan is mainly oriented towards the rest of Sumatra and a handful of destinations on the island of Java.
According to the Dutch newspapers, this new service is being offered as a way of " better meet demand from the Netherlands and Europe" According to Garuda's Vice President Europe, Dewar Kadek Rai, the majority of travellers go to Bali when they are in Indonesia. However, the number of flights has been reduced to three. The new route will save an hour on the journey to Denpasar.
The flight time to Bali from Amsterdam will now be less than 18 hours. Flights will be operated by Airbus A330-200 however, offering a larger business class (ten additional seats, i.e. 36 sleeper seats) than on the current Boeing 777-300s. These repeated changes in fact demonstrate the difficulties faced by the Indonesian carrier, which is facing a strained financial situation. The airline's situation has deteriorated further following the government's recent decision to impose a reduction in fares on domestic routes. For business travellers, Europe is losing all its non-stop routes to Jakarta, leaving only KLM and Turkish Airlines...
