This must be some kind of a record for the longest time spent in a holding pattern, or something…
In this post:
Garuda Indonesia plane circles endlessly over India
On May 8, 2026, Garuda Indonesia flight GA4208 was operating from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (JED), to Medan, Indonesia (KNO). The flight was operated by an Airbus A330-900neo with the registration code PK-GHI. At 4,190 miles and with a tailwind, this flight ordinarily takes somewhere around 8hr.
However, on this particular day, the journey instead took a staggering 12hr39min. When you zoom out and look at the route the plane operated, you might not think much of it, as it looks pretty normal.
However, when you zoom in on the route over India, you’ll notice something pretty wild. The first 5hr20min of the flight was pretty routine, as the plane made its way across Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the Arabian Sea.
Then while over the southern part of India, the plane entered a holding pattern. It’s not unusual for planes to have to enter holding patterns due to heavy traffic, but the plane stayed in that holding pattern for around 4hr30min.
My goodness, this must’ve been borderline disorienting, with the plane making right patterns for hours on end. Eventually the plane was given permission to continue, and then it was roughly another 2hr50min to complete the journey to Indonesia.
What was the cause of this wild holding pattern?
Like I said, while it’s not uncommon for planes to enter holding patterns for some amount of time, a hold of this length is virtually unheard of. That’s true for the simple reason that planes don’t ordinarily load up several extra hours of fuel, given how costly that is.
So, what was the reason? It was reportedly because a large portion of the airspace around the Bay of Bengal was closed down for the test of the Agni-6 missile.
Fair enough, it’s not uncommon to see airspace closed for missile launches, or other similar activity. Here’s what does surprise me:
- Did the pilots know in advance they’d have to enter a holding pattern, so they loaded up on an extra five or so hours of fuel? That can’t be cheap with as expensive as jet fuel is right now! Or did they just happen to be tankering, given that jet fuel is presumably cheaper in Saudi Arabia than Indonesia?
- If they knew they were going to have to hold, wouldn’t it have been better to just delay the departure?
My guess is that there was some sort of a window for the airspace closure, and perhaps the closure came toward the earlier part of the window? Maybe Garuda Indonesia’s operations folks were hoping for a best case scenario outcome with beating the airspace closure, but was were prepared for the worst case scenario, of having to hold for a long time.
It must’ve been a pretty big chunk of airspace closed, or else you’d think they could just reroute more efficiently, to stay out of the closure zone.
Bottom line
A Garuda Indonesia Airbus A330neo spent hours circling over the Bay of Bengal, after the airspace was closed due to a missile launch. Typically in such a situation flights would just be delayed. And if this was all unexpected, you’d typically see flights divert, since it’s incredibly rare to see aircraft have this much extra fuel.
I imagine this has to be some sort of a record for the longest holding pattern ever on a commercial flight, or something.
What do you make of this Garuda Indonesia holding pattern?
Would have been much easier to just land in Chennai and wait out the delay. Somewhere, somehow, communications broke down.
Judging from its flight number, perhaps this is an empty flight after carrying Hajj passenger from CGK to JED then return to CGK to pick another Hajj passenger, must be pretty insane for the crew to been hold for that long despite no passenger inside that flight l.
This isn’t Hajj season yet for this year. Umrah is basically year-round but those flights from JED to CGK get filled up anyway between pilgrims and migrant labor.
Given fuel acquisition problems are more severe in some parts of the world than other parts, airlines have to assess whether to fill up more than usual at their destination than at home. In this case, it worked out for Garuda from an ability to stay in the air longer to avoid India’s missile testing exercise, but it cost Garuda the fuel it brought in to try to somewhat reduce its fuel bill if needing to fill up as much in East Asia.
I guess Garuda crews don't "time out." Probably a stunt by Airbus to show range of the a330neo.
Meanwhile , all were overjoyed to be out of Saudi , and all were saddened to be going to Indonesia .
They smelled the food and were hungry .
Not a ringing endorsement of their flight planning system.
They "planned" it o.k. , but their "execution" was wanting .