Garuda Indonesia and Singapore Airlines are deepening their relationship. My question is, why?
It’s an unlikely relationship to begin with. Two different alliances. Overlapping routes. Competition for the same connecting passengers. So why?
In 2010, Singapore and Garuda began codesharing between Singapore (SIN) and Bali (DPS). Codeshares on flights between Singapore and Surabaya (SUB) were added in 2014. Now, both carriers will codeshare on flights between Singapore and Jakarta (CGK).
Going back to the why question, Singapore and Garuda offer a combined 175 weekly flights between the two nations. 18 of those flights (nine each) are between Singapore and Jakarta. Many depart at or around the same time. Thus, maybe I’m missing the obvious, but I don’t see the upside for either carrier other than hopes that Singapore passengers may book connecting flights on Garuda or that Garuda passengers will book connecting flights on Singapore.
via Google Flights
Tan Kai Ping, SIA’s Senior Vice President of Marketing Planning, stated:
Indonesia is a very popular tourism and business destination and we are pleased to make the country more accessible to travelers from all around the world.
Pikri Ilham Kurniansyah, Garuda Indonesia Director of Commercial, stated:
Garuda Indonesia’s flights to Singapore have played an important role in improving economic ties as well as cultural exchanges between the two countries. Today, just as more than half a century ago, Singapore remains a partner in growth as well as an important market for Garuda Indonesia.
I don’t know about you, but Tan’s statement makes no sense. How does making a destination more accessible help the bottom line? Singapore (of all carriers) does not codeshare for charity reasons. I get the statement from Kurniansyah – he just affirms the importance of Garuda’s service to Indonesia. But it says nothing about the codeshare.
CONCLUSION
So can someone explain this to me? I’m not being deliberately obtuse. I just don’t see the benefit for either party, but especially not for Singapore. Is this simply a painful partnership to avoid even more pain inflicted via customers booking low-cost carriers instead?
Seems pretty odd!
But SQ can often be sold out , so perhaps they want the extra capacity to help manage their capacity on their own metal at peak times.
Indo-EU /US is big business for them as well as a huge O&D demand at top prices for travel between the two cities. In the peak hours can make it very difficult to secure a seat
Worth noting that there is a similar codeshare with MH on the KL route though similarly little co-operation/ co-ordination and (present Max related cuts aside) both airlines fly a full schedule across the day including nightstops in each city