The national airline of Indonesia, based in Jakarta, suffered for issues concerning safety for decades along its history, until the EU and US banned it (and other Indonesian carriers) from the European and American skies. The ban was lifted in 2009, when Garuda launched ‘Quantum leap’ program involving a renewal of fleet, onboard service and livery which brought it into the elite of commercial aviation. This process culminated in the airline being awarded the 5-STAR rating by Skytrax in 2014 and every year ever since. Adding to this, in 2019 Garuda has been the world’s most punctual airline, with 91.6% of all its flights which operated on-time. On a less happy note, its safety rating remains low, with three major accidents (without injuries nor fatalities onboard) occurred in the last eight years (Photo Wikimedia Commons ( Masakatsu Ukon)
- - 5 STARS: Awarded to airlines achieving a very high, overall quality performance. It recognizes high standards of onboard product together with consistent and excellent standards of staff service across airport and cabin environments
- - 4 STARS: Awarded to airlines that deliver a good overall quality performance and provide good product standards across different travel cabins
- - 3 STARS: Awarded to airlines delivering a fair quality performance equating to the industry 'average' of acceptable product and service standards
- - 2 STARS: Shows airlines delivering a lower total quality performance, in some instances below the industry average across many rating categories
- - 1 STAR: Represents a poor quality of product delivered across the assessment sectors