Garuda Indonesia's Jakarta To London Flight Will Finally Fly Nonstop

Announcing the elimination of the stop over a year in advance?

But airlineroute on Twitter said the schedule change will take place October this year.. So which is it?

Not enough coffee this morning, apparently. Should have said 2017 and not 2018. Sorry!

Last November, Singapore Airlines had to defer their planned SIN-CGK-SYD route due to runway maintenance ( https://www.ausbt.com.au/singapore-airlines-defers-sydney-jakarta-singapore-route-launch). Another SIN-CGK (SQ962) and the corresponding SQ963 also had to be cut back from daily to twice a week due to this too.

This was strange as the flights cut weren't within the maintenance timings but were at
(1) 1710h - arrival into CGK of SQ962 (SIN-CGK)
(2) 1800h - departure from CGK of SQ963 (CGK-SIN)
(3) 2100h - arrival into CGK of the proposed SQ261 (SIN-CGK)
(4) 2225h - departure from CGK of the proposed SQ261 (CGK-SYD)
(5) 1100h - arrival into CGK of the proposed SQ262 (SYD-CGK)
(6) 1535h - departure from CGK of the proposed SQ262 (CGK-SIN)

That these particular flights which potentially cut into flag carrier Garuda Indonesia's revenue are the ones cut and that no other airlines' flights at those timings were affected, seemed then (and now) of protectionism of the national flag carrier. It would seem that someone at the Indonesian civil aviation agency had given approval to the routes when they shouldn't have and they used this as a reason two weeks from the launch of the routes to rectify that ( https://blueswandaily.com/garuda-benefits-as-indonesia-authorities-force-singapore-airlines-to-delay-jakarta-sydney-service/). Protectionism isn't new as SQ had previously been restricted from flying the B747 into Jakarta from the early 2000s and had to use the B777s and A330s instead.

I wonder if with this completion of the runway works which is enabling GA to fly non-stop to London would mean that the Indonesian authorities would allow the resumption of the SQ flights.

CGK-LAX nonstop would be a good 8986 mi, barely shorter than DOH-AKL (9,032) and PER-LHR (9,010) but longer than LAX-SIN (8,770).

If GA can actually make it commercially work viably, more power to them, but I feel that it might be another vanity route.

For reference, CGK-LHR is a lottttttttt shorter at 7,284.

You forget about Norwegian is launching SIN LGW service

@henry LAX,

GA has never planned to operate LAX-CGK nonstop. They plan to make it a one-stop flight via NRT, presumably with pick-up rights.

Was thinking about when LAX wod start, if at all. I would certainly use it vs. a Singapore 2-stop, and of timing works, even better than Cathay or China or Eva one-stops

For one stop service via Jakarta, Garuda has been planning for service to Moscow from 2018 with their A330. For more service they basically need more aircraft, they has been placed order for 14 A330neo in London. For more aircraft they actually has been signed LOI for 30 A350 and 30 787 in Paris airshow 2015

For one stop service via Jakarta, Garuda has been planning a route to Moscow start in 2018 with their A330. For more routes Garuda actually need more airplanes, they have signed a purchase for 14 A330neo in 2015. For more airplane they actually have signed a LOI for 30 A350 and 30 787 in Paris Airshow 2015

This change to nonstop in the outbound flight from CGK to LHR comes amidst consistently (and dangerously) low load factors on the SIN-LHR and LHR-CGK legs during off-peak times. The original plan was to reduce the CGK-SIN-LHR-CGK frequency down to two weekly, as per http://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/274473/garuda-indonesia-london-service-changes-from-oct-2017/, but instead they decided to ditch the SIN stop and keep three frequencies per week. Would definitely be so much more advantageous to Garuda compared to a SIN stop where Garuda faces heavy headwinds from the competition.

Additionally, given Garuda's current bleak financial situation (despite deep and extensive cost cutting efforts ongoing), the Garuda administration has shelved plans (and withdrew its FAA request) for flights to LAX. Garuda had also previously disclosed plans to launch nonstop Moscow flights by August which... never materialized. Garuda will for now focus on domestic and regional route development, while new long haul routes will now be put on hold until at least 2019, when Garuda takes delivery of their first A330neo.

@Melvsim
Well based on your statement of singapore airlines With route SIN-CGK-SYD it was defer/postpone that route is because of the Runway. The runway wasn't strong enough to have a lot of fuel to take off from the jakarta's runway so CGK upgrade it's runway capacity so it could fly some plane with heavyweight capacity. In this case garuda can fly nonstop to London is because the runway already been upgraded so it can stand for heavyweight aircraft.

LHR-CGK load is pretty good. I was on it in october.