Notorious route and schedule changer, Garuda Indonesia, announced yet another schedule change to come into effect on 1st October. Having made eight changes to its London scheduling in 2019 alone, Garuda has announced the cancellation of its route between Amsterdam and Jakarta on short notice, contrary to common practice.
Instead of offering a direct flight between the Dutch and Indonesian capitals, a new link service has been put forward as a means to be "better aligned with demand from the Netherlands and Europe", according to Garuda's CEO for Europe.
The details of the schedule change
Currently, Garuda Indonesia offers a direct flight option between Amsterdam's Schiphol and Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airports. This route connects travelers between Europe and Indonesia and offers a convenient travel option.
Initially, the airline serviced six flights on a weekly basis, but Garuda announced that it would be cutting the frequency down to three weekly flights after the 2019 summer holidays.
Shortly after the reduction in the schedule took place, the airline announced that the direct flight between Amsterdam and Jakarta will be canceled from the 1st of October, to be replaced by a linked route. This route will offer flights from Amsterdam to Denpasar in Bali, via a stop in Medan.
According to Garuda, this will mean a shorter travel time to Denpasar by an hour. The flight time will now be under 18 hours to reach Bali from Amsterdam.
The reasons for the change
After the initial decrease in flights between Amsterdam and Jakarta, Garuda Indonesia has eventually decided to cancel all its flights between the two cities from October 1st. The initial reduction came about after a series of schedule changes were announced on a number of routes, aimed at meeting the airline's budget plan for 2019.
Adhering to the budget was made all the more daunting after the Indonesian government lowered its price ceiling ticketing prices for economy class domestic flights. The added strain on Garuda Indonesia's finances has caused it to rethink the way it approaches its long-haul flight options.
The CEO for Europe, Dewar Kadek Rai, further explained that the change in schedule would be more in line with the current demand from Europe, where the majority of travellers look towards travelling to Bali when visiting Indonesia.
What this means for Garuda
With almost its entire fleet reduced to economy-option flights only, Garuda Indonesia has made it clear that it is focusing on the higher-volume market in order to meet its financial responsibilities and to adhere to budgetary constraints. In a further attempt to do so, its latest scheduling change will include switching to the Airbus A330-300 for all flights between Schiphol and Medan on a non-stop route.
Garuda will potentially lose out on European travellers who want to avoid the busy Bali destination, with KLM set to regain its monopoly on Amsterdam-Jakarta flights.
There is a feeling that Garuda's next schedule change is a question of "when", rather than "if". At the time of publishing, Simple Flying was still awaiting comment from Garuda Indonesia.