Garuda Indonesia Airways (Jakarta) took possession of new Boeing 737-8U3 PK-GFM (msn 39920) on January 14, 2011. The new airliner is painted in a retrojet color scheme.

The airline was established as Indonesian Airways on January 26, 1949. The first aircraft was a Douglas DC-3 named Seulawah (Acehnese: “Gold Mountain”). Ironically the first route was outside of Indonesia from Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Rangoon (now Yangon). The DC-3 could not fly direct to Indonesia at the time because the Dutch colony was still not independent.

Copyright Photo: M. Radzi Desa. PK-GFM prepares to land at Jakarta (Soekamo-Hatta) on January 29. This color scheme was introduced in 1961 when the first new Lockheed 188C Electras were delivered. The titles in this era were written as “Garuda Indonesian Airways”.