Garuda to start Australia-Jakarta-London Kangaroo Route in November
By David Flynn, April 18 2013
Garuda Indonesia will launch its own take on the Kangaroo Route between Australia and London, with a stopover in Jakarta, in November this year.
Flights will commence on November 2nd and are now open for bookings.
Garuda's brand new Boeing 777-300ER jet – featuring First, Executive business class and economy class – will run five times a week on the Sydney-Jakarta leg.
There will also be four connecting flights each week out of Melbourne, and five from Perth.
To streamline the connections at Jakarta, Garuda is also changing the timetable for Sydney, Melbourne and Perth flights.
Travellers from Sydney will see the shortest stopover at Soekarno–Hatta International Airport (airport code CGK), at just over 1.5 hours.
That stretches to 2 hours if you're heading up from Melbourne, and almost 3.5 hours from Perth.
Brisbanites are in for a long wait, as Garuda doesn't offer direct flights to Jakarta. Your journey will stop at Denpasar, and after three hours you'll be off to Jakarta, only to face eight hours waiting for the daily London service.
It's no stretch to suggest that most Brisbane travellers will either hop a domestic flight to Sydney and join the direct-to-Jakarta flight, or give Garuda a miss entirely.
"The launch of direct flights from Jakarta to London is an incredibly exciting venture for Garuda Indonesia, and with our new 777 aircraft, we are offering our passengers a premium aircraft together with our award-winning Garuda Indonesia Experience" said Bagus Y. Siregar, Vice President for Garuda Indonesia Australia.
"From November, passengers will leave Australia in the evening and relax through the night, before arriving in London in the morning.”
Garuda's Jakarta-London flights will also use a Boeing 777-300ER, which will be equipped with inflight Internet and an on-board chef to keep first class passengers well fed and watered on the journey's longer leg.
The London end of the route is anchored at Gatwick rather than Heathrow.
The city's smaller second airport is not only less crowded than Heathrow but can be more convenient for business travellers, especially if you're heading for the eastern side of London, with direct trains to the city's financial hub and faster connections on to Docklands.
Updates to Gatwick include new lounges, premium fast-track security and increasingly upmarket restaurants in the departures hall (Jamie Oliver's Italian place is well worth a stop).
Keep up to date on the latest news for business travellers and frequent flyers: follow Australian Business Traveller on Twitter! We're @AusBT.
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 May 2011
Total posts 732
Nice to see Garuda trying to get a piece of the pie on the (formerly known as) Kangaroo route. Skyteam flyers will have another option to reach Europe besides China Southern. Curious to see what the new layout will be, esp with regards to First class. They have never had a First cabin before as far as I know. Their business offering looks very competitive, judging from the articles I read. Big plus of using the 777-300ER on the route is that it cuts out the refuelling stop that the Amsterdam route has in DXB. Let's hope the timings are favourable as well as the pricing.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
25 May 2012
Total posts 580
Skyteam flyers also have Vietnam Airlines, China Eastern, China Airlines and Korean Airlines to reach Europe.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
24 Jan 2013
Total posts 6
From which city in Australia will they operating from?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 May 2011
Total posts 732
My best guess is Sydney as this is the only port they are serving currently (2 flights daily, one to CGK and one to DPS)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
06 Apr 2011
Total posts 106
Pretty sure Garuda also flies MEL-DPS-CGK &/or MEL-CGK daily
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
26 Aug 2012
Total posts 9
I think all the ports including the new startup in Brisbane soon. Melbourne has 4 flights a week to Jakarta, Sydney has one per day and soon Perth will get a direct PER-CGK instead of the planned PER-DPS-CGK route from 1st of July. Brisbane will also be BNE-DPS-CGK.
Melbourne - 7x weekly
Perth - 14x weekly
Sydney - 14x weekly
Thai Airways International - Royal Orchid Plus
16 May 2011
Total posts 113
Just to clarify everything re: GA and their MEL operations.
GA currently operate MEL-DPS & MEL-CGK
MEL-DPS will go daily in April and MEL-CGK will go x5 weekly at the same time.
Note: All flights are operated by etiher A332 or A333, only SYD & MEL receieve A330 service with the latest long haul Business Class. PER & BNE receive 737NG flights with regional Business Class, BNE won't have "non-stop" CGK, only DPS services.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
26 Aug 2012
Total posts 9
Perth's service is increasing to 2 a day ex. DPS from 28JUN13 and adding Jakarta directly using GA724/725 existing service retimed without the need to stop over in DPS from 15APR13. There is a rumour though, that Garuda may begin A333 on some services PER-DPS/PER-CGK. **UNCONFIRMED**
As for Brisbane, the flights make an immediate stopover in DPS and then continue on to CGK just like Perth's current services.
10 Mar 2011
Total posts 526
The lounge facilities are very average in Jakarta... Hope they do something about that if passengers have to wait up to 3.5 hours for the connection.
Virgin Australia - Velocity Frequent Flyer
18 Apr 2013
Total posts 23
Just tried a booking search and only London LHR appeared as an option for London, not Gatwick, I am assuming the flights have not yet been loaded?
Also does anyone know when Garuda have 2 different web address: www.garuda.com and www.garuda.net.au?
Cheers
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
10 May 2011
Total posts 732
Just saw a picture of their new First Class suite, looks very much like the SQ Suites. now we have to wait and see what they will offer in terms of food and beverages, an onboard chef is a promising a start. Now let's see how competitive the pricing will be.
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