Garuda Indonesia to introduce B77W to SYD.

[Bernie P]

In full colour scheme now... Smart looking beast!!

PK-GIA by sabian404, on Flickr

[Bernie P]

And she's airborne!!

PK-GIA by sabian404, on Flickr

[Rowan McKeever]

Geeeeeeeeez... that's nice!!!!!!!

[Brandon Giacomin]

CGK-LGW start up has been pushed back 6 months due to the old runway at Jakarta being unable to handle a fully loaded 777 to London. Sydney will see the 777s from November 8, a little later then first intended. They will only fly to SYD for 6 weeks before returning in May 2014 when CGK-LGW starts up.

Garuda had previously scheduled the Boeing 777 to begin flying between Sydney and Jakarta from October 27, five days prior to the launch of its London service and thus tapping into the Kangaroo Route market.

Garuda says the Boeing 777-300ER's debut on the Sydney-Jakarta route will be pushed back to November 8 but will fly that path for just under six weeks, until December 18.

"The aircraft will then be deployed to another region until our Jakarta to London service begins in 2014, when the aircraft will fly from Sydney to Jakarta and onto London direct” the airline says.

http://www.ausbt.com.au/garuda-postp...ce-to-may-2014

[Ian Gains]

PK-GIC 777-300ER was delivered to Jakarta yesterday.

[Malcolm Parker]

I heard there has been a delay on LHR until may next year on the 777 due to pavement issues on the Jakarta runway with its ability to operate under max TOW conditions . Can someone verify

[Ellis Taylor]

Correct Michael, the London flights are on hold until May next year, and Garuda says it is due to the runway at CGK not being able to accommodate a fully loaded 773ER. It can take it with a load of 275 pax and no cargo, but that doesn't work for them. I wrote up the announcement for Flightglobal Pro yesterday, and you can see a preview it here: http://t.co/ihVP0EMqnS

Personally, I think that there's more to the case that is being said. There probably is some truth to the runway issue but Garuda have known about that for ages. I think it's more likely that they planned to launch with the weight restrictions but the forward bookings aren't looking as strong as they would like to be so they decided to postpone it for a bit.

When (If?) it does start going to London next year, it seems that GA are pushing hard to get some Heathrow slots rather than going Gatwick as they want to feed into the SkyTeam terminal there.

They will still put the 773 onto Sydney for a month in Nov/Dec, and the others will be used on Tokyo and Shanghai, as well as Jeddah.

[Jacob L]

To be quite honest, I do like Garudas paint job on the 777. One plane to come and spot soon

[Stefan Perkas]

Evening all,

Garuda Indonesia has cancelled planned Boeing 777-300ER operation from 07NOV13 to 18DEC13, based on latest schedule update. The airline will continue to operate Airbus A330-200 aircraft on this route, 5 times a week.

GA712 CGK2245 – 0930+1SYD 332 x13
GA713 SYD1130 – 1435CGK 332 x24

http://airlineroute.net/2013/10/17/ga-syd-nov13/