Garuda Indonesia plots a virtual return to the United States

Garuda Indonesia wants to place its GA designator tag on Singapore Airlines flights between Singapore's Changi Airport and Los Angeles and New York. An application to the US Department of Transport highlights the unlikely alliance between Singapore's powerhouse airline and Indonesia's beleaguered national carrier. The application is also an indication of how Garuda Indonesia plans to take its once impressive long-haul network forward and regain its long-lost foothold in the United States. In a June 3 filing signed by Singapore Airlines and Garuda Indonesia representatives, Singapore Airlines applied for permission to display Garuda's GA designator code on its flights between Singapore and the US. Right now, putting that code on Singapore Airlines' flights to Los Angeles and New York is top of the agenda, but the application also asks for permission to display the GA code on Singapore Airlines flights to other US airports in the future. Singapore Airlines is now flying to Los Angeles twice daily and JFK once a day. The 18-hour plus flight to JFK, operated by an Airbus A350-900ULR, ranks as the longest passenger flight in the world. The airline also flies to Seattle , San Francisco, and Houston, but those three cities are not explicitly mentioned in the application.<br/>