JAKARTA - Garuda Indonesia is adding an extra round trip between Jakarta and Amsterdam on March 24 and 25 to absorb a surge in demand on what is already the only nonstop connection between the two countries. The airline announced the additional services on Tuesday, March 17. 

Flight GA-088 will depart Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK) at 22:50 WIB on March 24, landing at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) at 07:50 local time on March 25. The return service, GA-089, departs Amsterdam at 11:05 local time on March 25 and arrives back in Jakarta at 07:20 WIB on March 26. 

The two extra departures fall outside Garuda’s regular twice-weekly schedule, which operates on Thursdays and Sundays outbound and Mondays and Saturdays inbound. Both flights will be operated by Boeing 777-300ER wide-body aircraft. 

“The addition of these scheduled flights is presented as part of Garuda Indonesia's commitment to providing increasingly flexible travel options for the public, while also strengthening air connectivity between Indonesia and the European region,” the airline said, as quoted by BUMN-owned agency KabarBUMN.

The Amsterdam route carries sustained structural demand around the Lebaran holiday, or Indonesia’s Eid homecoming period. 

According to the most recent Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics data available, from 2022, approximately 349,300 Indonesian nationals were residing in the Netherlands. This community of students, professionals and migrant workers is a large portion of demand on this corridor, particularly around major holidays. 

March 24 is H+3 from Eid, the day Jasa Marga President Director Rivan A. Purwantono has identified as the forecast peak of return traffic to the capital.

Previously, Garuda also said it will provide around 1.3 million airline seats for the 2026 Eid homecoming travel period from 14 to 29 March, including capacity from its low-cost subsidiary Citilink.

The seats will be supported by 7,634 flights (about 3,325 by Garuda and 4,309 by Citilink) with plans for 449 additional flights to handle expected demand on busy domestic routes such as Jakarta–Padang and Jakarta–Medan as well as international routes like Jakarta–Singapore and Denpasar–Tokyo.