SE Asia-London market: Garuda Indonesia learns a difficult lesson 

Garuda Indonesia is dropping London after four years and several unsuccessful attempts at serving the London market. Garuda's decision to stop providing an online product to London ends a colourful chapter in its history that dates back a decade, when it ordered 777-300ERs as part of an ambitious long haul expansion plan for the then reinvigorated flag carrier.

Pulling out of Heathrow is hardly a surprise, given that Garuda's London service has been highly unprofitable. Garuda has been restructuring in a bid to return to profitability and therefore cannot afford to continue covering losses on the Jakarta-London route.

Garuda's strategy for serving London was flawed from the beginning, resulting in several adjustments. Garuda has only offered nonstop flights in both directions for less than year.