Jakarta. Reviving the national carrier Garuda Indonesia takes time as the company bets on the Rp 23.6 trillion or roughly $1.3 billion injection from the sovereign fund Danantara.

About six months have passed since Danantara took over the company’s restructuring by injecting Rp 23.6 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2025.  The fund also transferred land assets worth Rp 5.6 trillion ($315 million) from the state-run airport operator Angkasa Pura Indonesia to the carrier’s aircraft maintenance subsidiary Garuda Maintenance Facility Aero Asia (GMFI). This puts Angkasa Pura as GMFI’s majority shareholder.

Since then, Garuda Indonesia’s financial performance -- slowly but surely -- has improved. Total equities were back in the black at $91.91 million compared to a negative $1.35 billion. Liabilities shrank from $7.9 billion in 2024 to $7.3 billion the following year. Even so, Garuda is still in the red, with its loss skyrocketing from $72 million to $322 million.

Danantara Chief Operating Officer Dony Oskaria said that Garuda had incurred the loss long before the fund’s injection. When Danantara had only begun to swoop in, 38 aircraft belonging to Garuda’s low-cost carrier Citilink were grounded. Even so, all these grounded planes had to pay the leasing costs. However, the company managed to turn things around after almost all of its aircraft were able to fly. 

GMFI reported that profit attributable to the owners of the parent entity soared from $3.7 million in Q1 2025 to $6.7 million in the same period the following year. Total equity rose from $114.5 million to $140.5 million, accompanied by an increase in the company's total liabilities to $769 million from $698 million previously.

Dony stated that Garuda Indonesia could have posted a profit in the January-March 2026 period, but the Iran war-induced aviation fuel put pressure on the company’s performance.

Danantara is also undertaking a comprehensive transformation that encompasses the pre-flight to redesigning loyalty programs. The fund is reviewing human capital.

"We injected [capital] at the end of 2025. It's only six months into the process of rehabilitating Garuda Indonesia," Dony said.

GMFI had also just unveiled plans for a quasi-reorganization aimed at eliminating the negative retained earnings “by setting it off with certain financial posts of the company in accordance with the prevailing capital market regulations”, according to a statement published at the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). 

“With no more negative retained earnings in the financial statement of the company,  [GMFI’s] financial structure can be more agile and competitive,” the statement reads.