Garuda Indonesia returned to Europe some years ago (after the airline’s removal from the EU’s blacklist) with big aspirations for the future.

Indonesia’s national airline discovered that its prior market had long since vanished. In its absence, the Gulf airlines had swooped in and scooped up the vast majority of Indonesian tourists.

As a result, Garuda determined that just two routes were worthwhile: Amsterdam and London. And those two routes have been affected as a result of the pandemic outbreak.

Following the cliché, “if you can’t beat them, join them,” Garuda has shown an interest in collaborating with Emirates on flights.

Garuda will provide its customers with worldwide access as a result of the agreement. This is critical since Garuda, which is deeply indebted, only has a small number of aircraft capable of long-distance flights.

Assuming regulatory approval is obtained, code-share operations will begin in early January 2022; however, the full list of European destinations has not yet been made public.

Garuda’s president and chief executive officer, Irfan Setiaputra, stated:

“This agreement comes at an opportune moment, as nations are anticipated to begin reopening their borders to foreign aircraft and easing travel restrictions in the near future.”

Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ chief commercial officer, added:

In order to give our clients access to more destinations in Indonesia, which is an important market for Emirates, we are glad to form a code-share collaboration with Garuda.