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Indonesia’s state airline Garuda Indonesia has offered to replace its liabilities to lessors and Islamic bondholders with new bonds and equity worth $1.13b, it told creditors in a meeting overseen by a Jakarta court on Thursday. Garuda proposed that lessors, vendors and other creditors take a large cut and replace the remaining amount with $800m worth of new bonds and $330m worth of shares, a company presentation at the court showed. The offer is directed at lessors, plane maintenance vendors, aircraft makers and holders of its Islamic bonds, to whom Garuda owes more than 255m rupiah ($17,513.74) each. The new bonds will have 10-year maturity with a 6.5% coupon per annum in cash. Garuda declined to comment on how much debt in total it will seek to settle through this scheme. According to the latest verified claims list, lessors made up the biggest chunk of Garuda’s outstanding liabilities at 82.73t rupiah ($5.68b) or nearly 70% of the total at 120.5t rupiah. The list has yet to include claims by 43 creditors that have not been verified, a court-appointed administrator told the meeting. Garuda defaulted on $500m Islamic or sukuk bonds in June, 2021. The airline has also proposed to settle its debts to banks and other state companies by extending the loans’ maturity by 22 years and offering a 0.1% interest rate per annum.<br/>

Korean Air has been slammed by customers and even its flight attendants for providing poor inflight services, including insufficient meals and supplies during flights at a time when ticket prices more than doubled compared to pre-COVID times, according to passengers and critics Thursday. There have been numerous posts and comments online by passengers criticizing Korean Air's in-flight services. "The air ticket prices were much higher but they reduced services which are unrelated to COVID. I am worried that low-quality service will become the norm," a business class passenger on a Seoul-bound flight from Auckland, New Zealand wrote. "Instead of the warm towels provided before meals, cold disposable wipes were provided, fruit was not provided, and no side dishes were provided for ramen and only one type of cold morning bread." Another passenger, who flew aboard a Korean Air flight to Bangkok, Thailand recently, also criticized the flag carrier. "I asked for some blankets because it was cold and the flight attendant said she couldn't and kept saying sorry," he wrote. Another business passenger who flew from Paris, France said, "I asked for another glass of champagne and they said 'no' and 'no soda'. Airplane fares have gone up, but it seems as if Korean Air is not equipped with basic in-flight items that should be served to passengers in order to save money, causing inconveniences." Some airfares have tripled compared to 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak. Korean Air's poor service quality is not only felt by passengers. Earlier, a Korean Air employee posted a comment on 'Blind', an anonymous community of office workers, criticizing Korean Air's lack of inflight supplies.<br/>