Named after the mythical bird; Garuda Indonesia in the flag carrier airline of Indonesia. It has its hubs at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and the Ngurah Rai International Airport both in Indonesia. Starting with a Dakota DC-3 in 1949, Garuda Indonesia grew to an impressive 38 aircraft by the end of the following year and by April of 1955, Garuda Indonesia acted as the official airline during the Asian African Conference tasked with flying delegates in from 29 countries.
Today, Garuda Indonesia flies to 21 domestic destinations and 18 international destinations. The international destinations include cities in China, Japan. Others are key nations like Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. It also covers Australia and Saudi Arabia. This is achieved with a fleet of 68 aircraft which comprises of Airbus and Boeing planes. It also has an order fleet of 66 planes from the same aircraft companies.
One of the tragic accidents which involved the airline occurred on July 11, 1979 when one of the airline’s domestic flights hit a volcano on its approach to the Medan Airport in Indonesia with all the passengers and crew being casualties. On March 7 2007, another accident occurred when the airline’s aircraft crashed while trying to land at the Adisucipto International Airport, Yogyakarta.
