Garuda Indonesia and SIA strengthen partnership

A Garuda Indonesia SIA partnership is expected to offer travellers an enhanced travel experience as international borders reopen. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Garuda Indonesia and Singapore Airlines (SIA) builds on their long-standing warm ties to explore a wide-ranging commercial partnership.

The Garuda Indonesia SIA partnership

The agreement, inked by Garuda Indonesia President and CEO Irfan Setiaputra and SIA CEO Goh Choon Phong on 26th November 2021, coincides with the launch of a quarantine-free Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) between Indonesia and Singapore on 29th November 2021.

The scope of the collaboration includes

• the potential alignment of frequent flyer programmes,
• joint marketing activities, and
• initiatives to promote inbound tourism into Indonesia,
  • subject to regulatory approval.

Both partners have also committed to exploring new growth opportunities in the air freight segment, as well as cooperation in maintenance, repair, and overhaul activities.

Garuda Indonesia and SIA reactivated their air connectivity partnership arrangement between Singapore and Bali, Jakarta, and Surabaya on 1st October 2021. Garuda Indonesia commenced flights network connectivity on SIA’s services to London on the same day, and will codeshare on SIA’s flights to Mumbai from 1st January 2022, subject to regulatory approval.

Additional airline connectivity partnerships to points in both airlines’ networks will be explored to support increased air connectivity to Indonesia and Singapore, as well as the wider Southeast Asia region.

…. Singapore Airlines and Garuda Indonesia have a strong and long-standing relationship, reflecting the warm and robust bilateral ties between Singapore and Indonesia, as well as the close connections between the people of the two countries.  Goh Choon Phong, Singapore Airlines CEO

Irfan Setiaputra sees the commercial cooperation between the two airlines as a great opportunity to grow business momentum. He noted that Garuda Indonesia is the first Indonesian airline to leverage vaccination-based travel programmes to and from Indonesia by collaborating with Singapore Airlines.

…. We are committed to supporting the acceleration of economic and tourism recovery by participating in ensuring the readiness of air transport infrastructure, particularly in anticipation of the Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) program between Indonesia and Singapore. Irfan Setiaputra