Garuda Indonesia Indonesia signed an agreement to join SkyTeam. However instead of the usual 18-24 months to complete membership formalities, shortcomings with its IT system delayed Garuda's entry. After a 40-month process, the airline eventually became the 20th member of the alliance on 5 March 2014, some two years after the original target date. Garuda Indonesia codeshares with the following airlines: As Indonesia's flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia tries to connect many parts of Indonesia to support the government's "Indonesian Interconnectivity" program. However, there are many remote and smaller airports that cannot be reached by Garuda Indonesia's fleet of Boeing 737-800s. This is
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,