Danantara Highlights Disparity in Flight Frequencies Between Garuda and Singapore Airlines
JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Danantara Indonesia has highlighted the imbalance in flight relations between Indonesia and Singapore. The principle of reciprocity in the aviation industry is considered to be unbalanced and detrimental to Garuda Indonesia.
Managing Director of Stakeholders Management at Danantara Indonesia, Rohan Hafas, said that the frequency of Singapore Airlines (SQ) flights to Indonesia is much higher than the number of Garuda Indonesia flights to Singapore.
According to him, Singapore Airlines can fly to Indonesia up to 6-8 times a day using wide-body aircraft such as the Airbus A330-300. Meanwhile, Garuda Indonesia only serves the route to Singapore about 1-2 times a day.
Rohan believes that this condition shows that the principle of reciprocity is not yet equal.
“Every country, if Indonesia goes to Singapore, then Singapore is allowed to go to Indonesia, Singapore Airlines. That is always reciprocal, and this time Indonesia is being oppressed by this reciprocity,” he said in a discussion with the media at Wisma Danantara, Jakarta, Thursday (February 26, 2026).
According to him, the Singapore-based airline obtains significant profits from short-haul routes in Indonesia, especially because competition on long-haul international routes is more intense.
For routes to New York and other destinations, Singapore Airlines has to compete with Middle Eastern airlines such as Qatar Airways and Emirates, which makes the profit margin thinner.
“So far, it has been unfair, SQ 8 times, Garuda 2 times to Singapore. That is what needs to be fixed,” he said.
He believes that the airline is implementing a competitive pricing strategy to attract passengers from Jakarta to Singapore. Subsequently, passengers are transferred to various connecting routes such as Japan or the United States.
According to him, this scheme allows the airline to cover potential losses on short routes through profits from connecting flights.
“So, bring passengers from Jakarta there (Singapore), cheaply, then the losses (from the short route) are covered by Singapore to New York, Singapore to Japan, and its connecting flights,” he said.
In addition to Singapore, Indonesia will also review and strengthen aviation cooperation with a number of other major destination countries, such as Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea.
He emphasized that the principle of reciprocity in international aviation agreements needs to be enforced so that national airlines have equal opportunities to compete in the global market.
“That is what needs to be fixed, the reciprocal agreement exists. Each airline definitely has it all over the world,” he concluded.
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