Many travel companies seek to establish a strong brand image for themselves, but perhaps none have managed to create one that is quite so distinct as that of Garuda Indonesia.

The airline takes its name from a giant mystical bird that is present in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology. In Hindu teachings, Garuda is a bird that carries the god Vishnu across the globe and was therefore considered a suitable and distinctive associative figure for the airlines international flight services. Furthermore, Garuda is seen as a source of national pride throughout Indonesia since the mythological beast appears on the National Emblem of Indonesia.

The airport is based at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport where its headquarters are located in Tangerang; an area that lies in close proximity to Jakarta, the country’s capital city. The airline employs over 5,800 staff and is a publicly traded company. That said, most of the shares of Garuda Indonesia are owned directly by the government of Indonesia.

As well as the main hub at Tangarang, the airline has another hub which can be found at Ngurah Rai International Airport in the region of Bali in the south of Indonesia. From these two hubs, Garuda Indonesia operates flights to the rest of Southeast Asia and East Asia, as well as flights to the Middle East, Europe and Australia. The flight did previously conduct flights to destinations around North America, but this was discontinued in recent years due to small profit margins.

In the past, the airline has gone from strength to strength and at times, has appeared to be on the brink of financial collapse. Nowadays however, the airline enjoys a strong reputation and stable financial situation due to long standing efforts to improve the company’s administrative procedures and customer services. As such, the airline has shaken off its former reputation and is now ranked as a four star airline by the industry authority: Skytrax. In 2010, the company was awarded the prestigious World’s Most Improved Airline award by Skytrax at the World Airline Awards that took place in Hamburg.

The company continues to make affirmative efforts to improve its services by setting its sights high. It was recently announced that the airline intends to be a member of the airline alliance SkyTeam by the end of 2012. In addition, the company is making further efforts to impress Skytrax in order to secure a much-coveted five star airline ranking by 2013.