Creditors of Garuda Indonesia looking to recoup money in the airline’s $9.8b debt restructuring must submit their bids on Wednesday. The deadline of 5 p.m. Jakarta time (10 a.m. in London) for filing claims will be the first in a series of milestones and months of wrangling that could stretch into September. The airline is seeking to cut liabilities to $3.7b and renegotiate leasing terms or return planes to aircraft lessors with the smallest penalties possible. “The government is committed to treat all creditors, foreign and domestic, fairly with the ultimate goal of saving Garuda,” Kartika Wirjoatmodjo, a deputy minister at Indonesia’s State-Owned Enterprises Ministry told Bloomberg News this week. Already struggling to stay profitable even before the pandemic brought travel to a standstill, Indonesia’s flag carrier wants investors to take a haircut of 81 cents on the dollar for their debt. That’s a lower recovery rate than what some regional peers offered, according to Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation consulting firm Endau Analytics. The indicated price of Garuda’s global sukuk recently fell to record lows under 23 cents on the dollar, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg. But there’s more at stake than financial returns. The 71-year-old airline is a major employer and a vital mode of transport for the country made up of 17,000 islands over an area spanning the distance from New York to London. Indonesia’s government is a majority shareholder, so parliament needs to approve big corporate changes. <br/>