Garuda Indonesia First Class Changes: Amsterdam Swapped For Tokyo

Garuda Indonesia has an excellent first class product, which I’ve historically ranked as being one of the best in the world. At the moment, the airline only consistently offers first class to one destination. In the coming months, that destination will be changing, though. Let me first provide a bit of background, and then we’ll talk about the change.

Garuda Indonesia only has two planes with first class

Garuda Indonesia has long been in a challenging financial situation — the airline can’t seem to keep any CEO for a long period of time, and therefore doesn’t have much of a vision. Beyond that, the government provides the airline just enough support to stay in business, but not enough to thrive.

Garuda Indonesia has a fleet of roughly 70 aircraft, though you’ll only find a first class cabin on the carrier’s Boeing 777-300ERs. The airline has eight of these jets, with only two featuring first class, so we’re really talking about a tiny fleet (these are planes with the registration codes PK-GIF and PK-GIG).

For a long time there have been discussions of Garuda Indonesia potentially eliminating first class, given that it’s such a small network, and one wonders if it even makes sense. For that matter, Garuda Indonesia used to have first class on eight of its 777s, but reconfigured six of them to remove first class.

In recent years, one of the two 777s with first class has even been leased by the government of Indonesia, as the presidential plane. However, the plane now seems to mostly be operating passenger flights for the airline, though typically it’s swapped in last minute, rather than being dedicated to any route.

For what it’s worth, Indonesia’s president otherwise uses a Boeing Business Jet, though obviously a 777 has significantly more range and capacity.

Garuda Indonesia first class route service changes

Currently, Garuda Indonesia only consistently offers first class on a single route, the 3x weekly flight between Jakarta (CGK) and Amsterdam (AMS), which operates with the following schedule:

GA88 Jakarta to Amsterdam departing 10:00PM arriving 7:50AM (+1 day)
GA89 Amsterdam to Jakarta departing 12:05PM arriving 7:55AM (+1 day)

That might seem like a random destination for offering first class, but it’s likely a combination of factors. Amsterdam is a SkyTeam hub, and there are also big historical ties between the Netherlands and Indonesia. Now, I still doubt there’s actually huge first class demand, since every time I look at availability on this flight, it seems pretty wide open in first class.

Anyway, there’s now an interesting update, as reported by AeroRoutes. As of July 31, 2025, Garuda Indonesia will discontinue first class to Amsterdam. This comes as the aircraft operating the route is swapped from a three-cabin 777 to a two-cabin 777.

So, what’s happening with that plane? Also as of July 31, 2025, Garuda Indonesia will start offering first class between Jakarta (CGK) and Tokyo (HND), as the route will change from a two-cabin 777 to a three-cabin 777. That route operates with the following schedule:

GA874 Jakarta to Tokyo departing 11:25PM arriving 8:50AM (+1 day)
GA89 Tokyo to Jakarta departing 11:45AM arriving 5:35PM

Honestly, that seems more logical and efficient all-around. I imagine there’s more first class demand between Jakarta and Tokyo, both from business and leisure travelers. It’s also better aircraft utilization, since a single 777 can operate this route daily, with fairly limited downtime.

Bottom line

Garuda Indonesia has a great first class product, which is only available on two aircraft (one of which is often used by the government). The airline currently only consistently offers first class between Jakarta and Amsterdam. However, as of late July 2025, that’ll be changing.

Garuda Indonesia will cut first class on the Amsterdam route, instead offering it on the Tokyo route. I’m just kind of surprised that the airline continues to bother with marketing and selling this product, after reconfiguring most 777s to remove first class, and now having such a small footprint.

What do you make of Garuda Indonesia’s first class strategy?