Garuda Indonesia and Singapore Airlines (SIA) today received approval from the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) for their commercial joint venture agreement.
With this approval, the airlines will be able to deepen their strategic partnership across a wider range of business activities that will bring greater benefits to both airlines, as well as Indonesia and Singapore. These potentially include: operating joint revenue-sharing flights between the two countries, coordinate flight schedules to provide travellers with more options and seamless connectivity between Singapore and Indonesia and beyond, and explore joint sales and marketing initiatives that deliver greater value to customers of both airlines.
Since Garuda Indonesia and Singapore Airlines signed an agreement to deepen their partnership in May 2023, the carriers have been working on initiatives including offering GarudaMiles and KrisFlyer members the opportunity to earn and redeem miles on codeshare routes. They have also launched joint marketing initiatives to promote tourism activities.
The airlines now codeshare on a wide range of flights, including between Singapore and the Indonesian cities of Bali, Jakarta, Medan and Surabaya, as well as on long-haul routes between Singapore and Johannesburg, London (Heathrow) and Mumbai.
Irfan Setiaputra, President and CEO of Garuda Indonesia, said: “We are very pleased to receive this approval as it marks a significant step forward in our commitment to improve service quality and expand the networks of Garuda Indonesia and Singapore Airlines through a strengthened partnership. The joint venture initiative we are preparing today is one of the strategies to ensure significant value creation for our loyal customers. Obtaining regulatory approval as a first step in a commercial agreement will provide more opportunities to develop well-executed strategic ideas.”
“We also hope that this joint venture agreement will provide seamless services to passengers with more flight schedule options and ease of mileage accumulation and redemption. Furthermore, this collaboration can result in concrete actions to help boost Indonesian tourism activities, which will support the progress of post-pandemic economic recovery,” Irfan explained.
Goh Choon Phong, Chief Executive Officer of Singapore Airlines, said: “The strong strategic partnership between Garuda Indonesia and Singapore Airlines has enabled us to expand our codeshare services over the past few years, providing our customers with more choices when it comes to flying. With the approval of CCCS, we are ready to deepen our collaboration in a broader scope of business activities. “In addition to continued efforts to strengthen the ties between our loyalty programs, this will provide our customers with even more options and added value. This partnership underlines the commitment of both airlines to enhance connectivity between Indonesia and Singapore and beyond, boost business and leisure travel and contribute to economic growth.”
