Singapore Airlines & Garuda Indonesia Partnership Approved

The joint venture between Singapore Airlines and Garuda Indonesia has received regulatory approval.

The approval came from the Competitor and Consumer Commission of Singapore, which had been reviewing the deal’s terms to assess its impact.

In cases where airlines want to establish a relationship or deepen their existing one, watchdogs will need to assess the impact of approving such a deal.

The assessment is crucial to understanding whether approval negatively impacts consumers and prospective customers alongside existing competition.

If the findings are that a relationship deepening would affect many parties, then the relevant competition watchdog would look to move to reject the prospective deal.

However, the approved Singapore Airlines and Garuda Indonesia joint venture will now see the pair strengthening their ties even further with multiple avenues.

This approval could potentially include operating joint revenue-sharing flights between Indonesia and Singapore. Furthermore, the airlines have highlighted coordinating flight schedules, offering travellers greater options between the countries and beyond.

Meanwhile, the carriers also highlight the ability to expand their joint sales and marketing iniaitives to provide greater value to customers across the two airlines.

We are very pleased to receive this approval, as it marks significant progress towards our commitment to enhance service quality as well as broaden both Garuda Indonesia and Singapore Airlines’ networks through a deepening partnership. The joint venture initiative that we are preparing today has been one of the strategies to ensure extensive value creation for our loyal customers. Having regulatory approval as the first step in a commercial agreement will provide more opportunity for developing well-executed strategic ideas.

Mr Irfan Setiaputra, President and Chief Executive Officer, Garuda Indonesia

Since 2023, Singapore Airlines and Garuda Indonesia have looked to work together on iniaitives such as their frequency flyer programmes of GarudaMiles and KrisFlyer, which presents the opportunity to redeem points on codesharing routes.

Promoting tourism activities has also been an important element of the two airlines’ work. Airline executives note that the continued development of this will enable greater support for long-term post-pandemic economic recovery.

Singapore Airlines and Garuda Indonesia already codeshare across various markets, including destinations within Asia. However, their connectivity stretches to international markets such as London Heathrow, Mumbai, and Johannesburg, each significantly benefitting the airlines and their customers with enhanced options.