Even as some airline alliances are having trouble, they’re still adding members to them. This week, SkyTeam has confirmed that Gaurda Indonesia will be formally entering the alliance on 5th March 2014.
Gaurda has coverage both locally, as well as international flight, connecting to six of the major SkyTeam hubs at:
– Amsterdam (KLM/Air-France)
– Beijing (China Eastern/China Southern)
– Guangzhou (China Southern)
– Seoul (Korean Air)
– Shanghai (China Eastern)
– Taipei (China Airlines)
The airline itself is on-target to join the alliance, with IT systems and aligning its customer product appropriately to the alliance.
For Garuda Indonesia, it’s a step forward as they transform themselves. with the CEO and president Emirsyah Satar saying:
“Joining SkyTeam marks another significant milestone in the company’s development, as we are now entering the stage of being a global player. This is part of our strategy to extend our network worldwide while at the same time improving our service by facilitating a seamless and more convenient travel experience for our customers”
For Skyteam airline members wanting an interesting airline to redeem on, this could be a good option. It provides some interesting links (the Amsterdam – Jakarta one comes to mind which should be a useful jumping off point into Asia), with upcoming services to London-Gatwick and Los Angeles.
It still is a reasonable play in the South East Asia market though, with Vietnam Airlines.
Want to keep up with me at GhettoIFE? Join me either by signing up for my newsletter, or follow me on Twitter @GhettoIFE for when there are posts to the blog!