Garuda Indonesia under the name of "Garuda Indonesian Airways". Throughout the revolution, Garuda supported national interests, and often carried diplomats on its flights. The Burmese government helped the airline significantly during its beginnings. The country's national airline, Union of Burma Airways, often chartered one of the airline's DC-3s for its own flights. Accordingly, upon Garuda's formal joint incorporation with KLM on 31 March 1950, the airline presented the Burmese government with a DC-3 as a gift. By the early and mid 1950s, the airline operated a fleet of 38 aircraft, which included 22 DC-3s, 8 Catalina seaplanes, and 8 Convair 240s, and
Garuda Indonesia Citilink, which provided low-cost flights to multiple Indonesian destinations and was spun-off in 2012. The earliest predecessor to Garuda Indonesia was KNILM, Royal Dutch Indies Airways, founded in 1928 during the Dutch colonial period; despite the similar name, it was not a subsidiary of the main Dutch carrier KLM. KNILM was dissolved in 1947, and its assets were transferred to a new KLM subsidiary, KLM Interinsulair Bedrijf (KLM Interinsular Service), which was nationalized in December 1949. The name "Garuda" was derived from a Dutch poem written by a renowned Javanese scholar and poet Raden Mas Noto Soeroto; ""Ik ben Garuda,