Who are Citilink and are they safe?

Citilink was established as Garuda Indonesia's Strategic Business Unit (SBU) in 2001. The first flight between Jakarta and Surabaya was on July 16th of the same year with a Fokker F28.

After significant changes in Garuda Indonesia's business in 2011, Citilink's development and expansion has been the main focus of the Garuda Group with a vision for the airline to become the leading low-cost carrier in the region by providing scheduled, low-cost and safety-focused air transport services.

By 2012 the airline was operating a more modern fleet of A320s and rebranded itself as low-cost carrier under the Garuda Indonesia group. Today the airline operates a fleet of A320s and ATR-72s with an average fleet age of 8.6 years.

SAFETY

Since its launch as Citilink in 2012 there have been five incidents involving Citilink aircraft. Three of these incidents were runway excursions (in 2012 and 2015) and there were no injuries. In 2021 an ATR-72 struck an airport fence upon landing but continued to land safely. There were no injuries. In 2022 a sad incident occurred where by the pilot passed away mid-flight. The first officer took over the aircraft and the plane returned to the airport safely. Again there were no injuries. Unlike its parent company, Citilink has not done the IOSA audit. The IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA) program is an evaluation system designed to assess the operational management and control systems of an airline. For the team here at AirlineRatings we consider the IOSA audit among one of the most important things when evaluating the safety of an airline. Despite an injury and fatality-free history, due to the absence of this audit, we have awarded the airline a total safety rating of five out of seven (5/7).

Learn more about our safety rating here

ON BOARD

The airline operates as a low-cost carrier meaning meals, snacks and drinks including water are purchased on board. There is no in-flight entertainment, WiFi, in-seat power, blankets, pillows or amenity kits. The airline operates all aircraft with economy seating only. Each seat has a small 28-29 inch seat pitch and a 17.5-inch seat width. Seat selection is available for a fee.