Garuda Indonesia’s Amazing First Class: Is The End Finally Here?

Garuda Indonesia has an excellent first class product, which I’ve historically ranked as being one of the best in the world. It has been many years since I’ve flown Garuda Indonesia first class, and I was making imminent plans to give the product another try.

While we’ll see this plays out, unfortunately it seems like Garuda Indonesia’s days of offering first class might be numbered, which is hardly surprising. Then again, we’ve seen the airline backtrack on this before, so who knows how this plays out…

Garuda Indonesia only has two planes with first class

Garuda Indonesia has long been in a challenging financial situation — the airline can’t seem to keep any CEO for a long period of time, and therefore doesn’t have much of a vision. Beyond that, the government provides the airline just enough support to stay in business, but not enough to thrive.

Garuda Indonesia has a fleet of roughly 80 aircraft, though you’ll only find a first class cabin on the carrier’s Boeing 777-300ERs. The airline has eight of these jets, with only two featuring first class, so we’re really talking about a tiny fleet.

In reality, the active fleet is even smaller than that — the 11-year old plane with the registration code PK-GIF has been parked since April 2025, so the 10-year-old plane with the registration code PK-GIG is the only one with a first class cabin that continues to be in service.

For a long time there have been discussions of Garuda Indonesia potentially eliminating first class, given that it’s such a small network, and one wonders if it even makes sense. For that matter, Garuda Indonesia used to have first class on eight of its 777s, but reconfigured six of them to remove first class.

It’s worth noting that not long before the second 777 with first class was parked, one of the 777s was actually leased by the government of Indonesia, as the presidential plane. For what it’s worth, Indonesia’s president otherwise uses a Boeing Business Jet, though obviously a 777 has significantly more range and capacity.

Garuda Indonesia has stopped selling first class

Historically, Garuda Indonesia’s primary route with first class has been the carrier’s flagship 2-3x weekly flight between Jakarta (CGK) and Amsterdam (AMS), which operates with the following schedule:

GA88 Jakarta to Amsterdam departing 10:00PM arriving 7:50AM (+1 day)
GA89 Amsterdam to Jakarta departing 12:05PM arriving 7:55AM (+1 day)

To some that might seem like a random destination for offering first class, but it’s likely a combination of factors. Amsterdam is a SkyTeam hub, and there are also big historical ties between the Netherlands and Indonesia. Now, I still doubt there’s actually huge first class demand, since every time I look at availability on this flight, it seems pretty wide open in first class.

Over the past several months, we’ve also seen the airline sometimes operate the plane with first class on some frequencies between Jakarta (CGK) and Tokyo Haneda (HND), which operates with the following schedule:

GA874 Jakarta to Tokyo departing 11:25PM arriving 8:50AM (+1 day)
GA875 Tokyo to Jakarta departing 11:45AM arriving 5:35PM

However, that has changed as of July 31, 2025, and now the only route to feature first class is between Bali (DPS) and Tokyo Narita (NRT), which operates with the following schedule:

GA880 Bali to Tokyo departing 12:20AM arriving 8:50AM
GA881 Tokyo to Bali departing 11:00AM arriving 5:25PM

I of course see the premium leisure demand that might exist in that market, though there’s certainly some irony to the carrier’s only first class route not being out of its primary hub. It’s funny, because Garuda Indonesia has a first class lounge in Jakarta, so I assume that doesn’t get much use anymore. Then again, it previously saw at most eight passengers per day, so I guess that’s not a huge difference regardless.

Here’s where it gets really strange — as of October 21, 2025, Garuda Indonesia has no flights scheduled with first class for sale across its entire network. As of October 26, 2025 (the start of the IATA winter season), Garuda Indonesia has seemingly scheduled a 777 with a first class cabin back onto the Jakarta to Tokyo route, though the airline isn’t actually selling first class seats, and instead, first class is zeroed out.

So we’ll mark this as “developing” for now, though it sure seems like it’s a real possibility that this might finally be the end of Garuda Indonesia first class. There’s simply no justifiable business case for offering a product that’s available on a single plane, especially since Garuda Indonesia first class tickets don’t exactly fly off the shelf.

If that’s the case, will the airline reconfigure these planes and eliminate first class, sell this as some sort of a “business class plus” product, just seat business class passengers there, or what?

Who knows, maybe Garuda Indonesia is just being Garuda Indonesia, and hasn’t decided what it wants to do, and is zeroing out first class in the meantime. Regardless, I’m tempted to give Garuda Indonesia first class one more try before it’s potentially a product of the past.

Bottom line

Garuda Indonesia has a great first class product, which is only available on two aircraft (one of which is parked). Historically, the airline has offered first class between Jakarta and Amsterdam, as well as between Jakarta and Tokyo.

In recent weeks and for the next couple of months, Garuda Indonesia is offering first class between Bali and Tokyo. Then as of late October, it sure seems like this product might just be cut altogether, as the airline is no longer selling first class.

I’d be mighty bummed if Garuda Indonesia finally eliminates first class, though it also seems to make business sense at this point. I’ll be sure to provide an update when there is one, either confirming that first class is gone forever, or confirming that it’s once again on sale.

What do you make of the prospect of Garuda Indonesia discontinuing first class?