Garuda Indonesia secures London Heathrow slots but slows widebody and international expansion

Garuda Indonesia has again shelved plans to launch new destinations in continental Europe but has secured slots at London Heathrow to replace London Gatwick. Frankfurt and Paris have been put on the backburner and capacity to Garuda's two main medium haul markets, Australia and Japan, will remain at relatively modest levels after large cuts were implemented in early 2015.

The airline has taken a sensible decision to decelerate growth of its medium/long haul network and as a result has adjusted its business plan to include fewer A330s and fewer new generation widebody aircraft. Scheduled international capacity also has been adjusted by allocating a larger portion of its widebody fleet to Saudi Arabia charters.

Garuda still plans to add long haul capacity in 2016 as it decouples its two European destinations, London and Amsterdam, but overall international capacity will grow at a significantly slower pace than initially planned. Garuda launched London Gatwick in Sep-2014 as a tag to Amsterdam and now plans to drop Gatwick in Mar-2016 while launching London Heathrow to Jakarta non-stops. Initially the Heathrow flight is slated to stop in Singapore on the outbound leg but Garuda expects eventually to operate non-stops to London once runway issues at Jakarta are resolved.