Garuda Indonesia operates flies the Singapore – Jakarta route 9 times daily. While the Boeing 737-800 is commonplace in the fleet especially for regional flights, twice a day, one of their widebody jets supplement the schedule with extra seats. During the day, GA825 uses the Airbus A330-200 for the short shuttle.
GA825 departed from Gate A21 on the day of my departure.
PK-GPL on duty for my flight to Jakarta.
Passing through the Business Class cabin.
Loks pretty comfy for the short flight.
Heading into the Economy Class cabin.
The seat seems to be an older product instead of what has been advertised.
The legroom available in the seat.
Do note of the entertainment box on the “K” seats.
The IFE’s touch screen is pretty dated, requiring a hard or sharp press into it to sense your touch. I just used my fingernail after a couple of seconds of wrongly pressing things.
Hmm, the dimensions of the new safety video is off in the IFE.
Pushing back from the gate.
Passing by the smaller sibling of Garuda’s fleet.
Crossing over Airport Boulevard to the runway on the T2 and T4 side.
Passing by Terminal 4.
An AirAsia Airbus A320 on taxi parallel to my plane.
The new Singapore Airlines Airbus A350-900 following behind.
Bye Singapore.
And in just a couple of minutes, it was all clouds due to the wet weather.
And lunch is served, or rather given. The stewardess just said “Nasi Ikan” and gave me my tray. I’d assume the other option was not available.
Seems a little plain but it’s actually rather salty. Compared with my Garuda flight to London, this was kind of disappointing.
Time for a toilet visit after the meal.
Amenities available in the toilet are a bottle of cologne, hand lotion and toothbrush kit. Not bad for a short flight.
Descending into Jakarta.
Touchdown at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.
Whoops, wouldn’t want to be downgraded to this Firefly plane for a 2-hour flight.
Might not want to be in this 440-seater Lion Air Airbus A330-300 too.
Heading towards Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Terminal 3.
Arriving at Garuda’s home base.
Heading for immigration at the new Terminal 3.
Overall, the flight was a decent but forgettable experience. Having been able to compare their service last year when they were having awards coming their way regularly and with the new route launch to London via Singapore, I’d have to say that either their service standards have dropped, or they have different standards for regional and long-haul flights. The IFE was clunky and a chore to flip through the many pages to access a TV episode, and the food, while understandably is catered from Jakarta and which came along with the inbound flight, didn’t look very appetizing (though the taste was sort of fine to me). Oh, and the meal did not have an appetizer course unlike the flight to London. True, the flight to London is significantly longer but a meal catered as a “lunch” should still be a lunch regardless of destination.
Let’s see how other full-service airlines fare on the same route soon. Stay tuned!
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