The flag carrier of Indonesia is celebrating its 74th anniversary. Garuda Indonesia was ranked the most punctual in the world for 2022 and celebrated the end of the year by exiting its restructuring proceedings.

The SkyTeam carrier continued to return to capacity over the past year, and Garuda Indonesia returned to making a profit due in part to a 60% increase in revenue as international borders reopened and a significant revenue gain from debt restructuring. The carrier received a state capital injection to support its restructuring and fleet renewal in December as it seeks to lead in what is usually the world's fifth-largest domestic aviation market.

Garuda Indonesia intends to spend the new year maximizing its business performance momentum from the past 12 months and pursuing opportunities in the cargo and religious pilgrimage markets. Indonesian Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi applauded the national flag carrier for ranking as the most punctual airline for 2022 while still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and suggested it would be an example for other domestic carriers:

"We hope the achievement would enhance the performance of national aviation, become a momentum of recovery, and advance the national aviation industry. I also hope this good on-time performance could be consistent and emulated by other national airlines.”

The carrier had an on-time percentage of 95.63% in 2022, meaning the vast majority of flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled time. Less than one percent of the airline's flights were canceled this past year, with just 0.61% of flights getting axed.

This year is not the first time the airline has made the most punctual rankings. It previously ranked at the top in 2019 with a score of 95.01%.

Future plans for the airline

The carrier filed to resume its network in the United States via a partnership with Singapore Airlines last summer. The agreement with see Garuda Indonesia adding its code to Singapore's flights to Los Angeles (LAX) and New York (JFK), and in return, adding the carrier's code to its domestic flights.

The airline is expected to focus on expanding in several areas this year. Garuda intends to grow the number of direct flights between Indonesian cities and pilgrimage sites in the Middle East to build on growing market share in the charter segment, including religious pilgrimages such as Umrah. Garuda President Director Irfan Setiaputra expressed his ambitions for the carrier in 2023:

“We will strengthen this commitment by developing a cargo flight network for both charter and scheduled flights to support direct call activities to various national export destination countries.”

The airline's restructuring spanned most of 2021 and 2022, resulting in a more streamlined full-service carrier. Simple Flying previously looked at Garuda Indonesia's low-cost subsidiary Citilink, which is also on track for a strong performance this coming year.

The airline also recently announced an updated partnership with Etihad, which will nearly double the number of combined services to 42 destinations across the Indonesian archipelago, South East Asia, the Middle East, the US, and Europe. The move followed a similar agreement with fellow UAE carrier Emirates.

Source: FlightGlobal, Tempo