Garuda Indonesia and Japan Airlines (JAL) Form Joint Business Agreement — What To Know

Garuda Indonesia and Japan Airlines (JAL) announced today a new joint business partnership.

This comes as both airlines prosper financially after a rough few years post-pandemic. However, this could potentially be a move to squeeze out competitors from these intercontinental routes.

Here’s what you need to know.

Garuda Indonesia and JAL Business Partnership Details

Both airlines have been working together since 2018, offering codeshare flights between the 2 carriers and their respective home countries, making this deal an extension of an already-established working relationship. This is notable as the partnership goes across alliance lines, as Garuda and JAL are part of SkyTeam and Oneworld, respectively.

However, this joint business partnership represents both airlines cooperating to take market share away from other Asia-based airlines. Here are the routes that the 2 airlines will share:

JAL already has a daily flight between Jakarta and Toyko-Narita and will increase the number of flights during the summer. Garuda operates daily services between Jakarta and Tokyo-Haneda, as well as Denpasar, Bali to Tokyo-Narita.

Mitsuko Tottori, the president and group CEO of Japan Airlines said in the announcement, “We are confident that with this partnership, we will be able to deliver important benefits to our customers and to grow the business between Japan and Indonesia. We expect to launch this joint business relationship in the second quarter of 2025 to provide additional travel benefits for our mutual customers.”

The popularity of travel between these 2 countries appears to be increasing. From the first half of 2023 to 2024, Indonesians visiting Japan surged 27%.

However, this partnership may not be the best news for those traveling between the 2 countries.

What Does This Mean for Travelers?

In the U.S., we have antitrust laws to ensure airlines and other businesses remain competitive to keep prices down. Earlier this year, a proposed merger between Spirit Airlines and JetBlue was nixed to avoid a lack of competition in the space.

In this case, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism for Anti-Trust Immunity approved this working partnership. Over time, competition could be pushed out on these routes. In turn, this could create a monopoly and higher prices for consumers to fly within and between the 2 countries.

Time will tell what prices look like when the main airlines on these routes are coordinating their flight schedules, rather than competing.

Final Thoughts

This may be a sign of more to come. All Nippon Airways and Singapore Airlines signed a similar cooperative agreement in early 2020.

Unfortunately, as a few airlines continue to dominate routes, this could result in less competition and higher prices for travelers as a result.