Citilink

Citilink is the low-cost airline of the Garuda Indonesia group. It is run as a separate company, PT Citilink Indonesia, with its own codes and brand, and flies mainly within Indonesia. Its main bases are Soekarno–Hatta airport serving Jakarta and Juanda airport serving Surabaya, and it also flies from Jakarta's older Halim Perdanakusuma airport.

Much of Citilink's recent story is about getting grounded aircraft back into service. In its own press releases the airline has reported each step: 31 aircraft operating in November 2025, 37 at the end of 2025, and 43 at the end of June 2026, up from 25 a year earlier. It linked the recovery to the support of Danantara, the Indonesian state investment fund that backs the restructuring of the Garuda Indonesia group. Average daily flights rose to 221 in the first half of 2026, from 183 in the second half of 2025.

From Garuda brand to separate airline

Garuda Indonesia created Citilink as a low-cost brand in 2001, and it began flying on 16 July that year with two Fokker F28s taken from the main fleet. The first routes ran from Surabaya to cities Garuda itself did not serve, including Yogyakarta, Balikpapan, Tarakan and Makassar. Boeing 737-300s began replacing the Fokkers from 2004. Garuda briefly suspended the operation in 2008 and relaunched it in January 2009.

A more ambitious plan followed in 2011: Citilink would become a separate company with new aircraft, livery, website and cabins. Its first Airbus A320 entered service on 16 September 2011, Garuda finalised an order for A320s and A320neos for it in August 2011, and Citilink became a separate subsidiary on 30 July 2012, receiving its own air operator's certificate the following month. In December 2012 it ordered ATR 72-600 turboprops, its first direct order from a manufacturer, for shorter routes and smaller airports.

Fleet and cabin

Citilink flies Airbus A320ceos and A320neos, ATR 72-600s and a single Airbus A330 wide-body. A Wikipedia fleet table dated July 2026 lists 59 aircraft, made up of 39 A320s, 10 A320neos, eight ATR 72-600s, one A330 and one Boeing 737-500 freighter. That is higher than the 43 aircraft the airline says it is operating; neither source explains the difference. The standard A320 cabin has 180 seats. The airline's "Green Zone" sells the first five rows and the emergency-exit rows as premium seats with snacks, drinks and insurance included.

Network changes, 2025–26

• July 2025: Citilink received IOSA registration, the IATA operational safety audit, and in October 2025 it became a member of IATA.
• November 2025: all its domestic flights at Soekarno–Hatta moved to Terminal 1C.
• December 2025: a Jakarta–Bangkok route opened, and Surabaya was linked with Palangkaraya.
• First half of 2026: routes from Halim to Padang and Pekanbaru, Makassar–Palu and Jakarta–Malang were restored, and Jakarta–Pagar Alam was added.
• 17 August 2026: flights resumed from Bandung's Husein Sastranegara airport, to Medan, Palembang, Denpasar, Balikpapan and Surabaya.