Joint Business Agreements continue to be a thing worldwide, with Japan Airlines (JAL) and Garuda Indonesia formally signing one between the two carriers.
This comes after approvals were obtained from Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism for Anti-Trust Immunity (ATI.)
Irfan Setiaputra, President and CEO of Garuda Indonesia, Mitsuko Tottori, President and Group CEO of Japan Airlines – Image JAL
The agreement for joint business will allow the two airlines to cooperate commercially on flights between Indonesia and Japan and its connecting domestic flights in Japan and Indonesia.
For passengers, they aim to deliver this by providing additional flight choices, a larger network, better connections, and an enhanced frequent flyer program. Further details will be announced as they are finalised.
JAL currently operates a daily service between Jakarta and Toyko Naria (with it scaling to an extra six flights a week in the summer timetable), whilst Garuda operates daily services between Jakarta and Tokyo Haneda, as well as Bali (Denpasar) to Tokyo Narita.
The airlines will also offer codeshares too.
The codeshare map – Image, JAL
In Quotes
Mitsuko Tottori, President and Group CEO of Japan Airlines said,
“We are excited about the opportunities the Joint Business provides for both airlines. We are confident that with this partnership, we will be able to deliver important benefits to our customers and to grow the business between Japan and Indonesia.
We would like to thank the MLIT (Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism) for approving our ATI application with Garuda Indonesia. We expect to launch this joint business relationship in the second the second quarter of 2025 to provide additional travel benefits for our mutual customers.”
Irfan Setiaputra, President and CEO of Garuda Indonesia said,
“We are delighted to elevate the partnership between Garuda Indonesia and Japan Airlines to new heights. The longstanding commitment with Japan Airlines, illustrates how far Garuda Indonesia has evolved in order to sustain value creation for consumers to enjoy air travel services between Indonesia and Japan.
This partnership signifies a major step towards strengthening the aviation ties between the two countries and aimed to expand our business presence and enhancing connectivity between Indonesia and Japan.
Furthermore, we believe that a strong foundation of regulatory compliance aspects in this partnership will aid us to deepen our collaboration across a wider scope of commercial activities. Therefore, we will work closely with the government to ensure that regulatory compliance will be fulfilled.”
Deeper and Commerical Ties
Joint Business Agreements allow airlines to pool resources, whilst sharing the revenue and risks of operating routes. In turn, they can offer the passengers more coordinated timetables, extra codeshares as well as frequent flyer benefits.
Providing they’re of use to the passenger. This is balanced against the cost of fares, which can form a monopoly on these route pairs.
Like any Joint Business Agreement, it will come down to the implementation of it, once the commercial benefits are finalised.
For now, it’s a game of patience for passengers.
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Why don’t they have one with Malaysia airways since they are both in the same alliance?