Garuda Indonesia is the flag carrier of Indonesia, headquartered at Soekarno–Hatta International Airport near Jakarta. A successor of KLM Interinsulair Bedrijf, it is a member of SkyTeam airline alliance and the second-largest airline of Indonesia after Lion Air, operating scheduled flights to a number of destinations across Asia, Europe, and Australia from its hubs, focus cities, as well as other cities for Hajj. It is the only Indonesian airline that flies to European airspace.

At its peak from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s, Garuda operated an extensive network of flights all over the world, with regularly scheduled services to Adelaide, Cairo, Fukuoka, Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, and other cities in Europe, Australia and Asia. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, a series of financial and operational difficulties hit the airline hard, causing it to drastically cut back services. In 2009, the airline undertook a five-year modernization plan known as the Quantum Leap, which overhauled the airline's brand, livery, logo and uniforms, as well as acquiring a newer, more modern fleet and facilities and renewing focus on international markets. It earned Garuda awards such as Most Improved Airline, 5-Star Airline, and World's Best Cabin Crew by Skytrax.

In the 2020s, the airline underwent restructuring efforts while continuing to maintain its service and safety standards. In 2025, Garuda Indonesia reported a net loss of US$318 million and in 2026 Skytrax adjusted its rating from 5-star to 4-star status.

Garuda also operated a budget subsidiary, Citilink, that provided low-cost flights to multiple Indonesian destinations and was spun-off in 2012. In November 2018, the airline took over operations as well as financial management of Sriwijaya Air by a cooperation agreement (KSO); the contract expired in December 2019.

The predecessor to Garuda Indonesia was a KLM subsidiary, KLM Interinsulair Bedrijf (KLM Interinsular Service), which was nationalized in December 1949.

In its current institutional form, Garuda Indonesia had its beginnings in the Indonesian war of independence against the Dutch in the late 1940s, when Garuda flew special transports with a Douglas DC-3. The first aircraft was a DC-3 known as Seulawah (Acehnese: "Gold Mountain", or from Arabic Shalawah, means praise/worship) and was purchased for 120,000 Malayan dollars, which was provided by the people of Aceh (notably local merchants). The first commercial flight from Calcutta to Yangon (then, Rangoon) was on 26 January 1949, using a DC-3 Dakota aircraft with the tail number RI 001 and the name Indonesian Airways. 26 January 1949 is generally recognized as the airline's founding date.

The name Garuda is taken from the Hindu tradition: it is the name of Lord Vishnu's mount (vahana) and was introduced in 1949. During the Dutch–Indonesian Round Table Conference at The Hague, from 23 August to 2 November 1949, Indonesian President Sukarno cited a Dutch poem by a renowned Javanese scholar and poet Raden Mas Noto Soeroto: "Ik ben Garuda, Vishnoe's vogel, die zijn vleugels uitslaat hoog boven uw eilanden", which means "I'm Garuda, Vishnu's Bird, that spreads its wings high above the Islands". The first flight under the name Garuda Indonesian Airways was made with a second DC-3 entering service in 1949. Its first flight under the new name was to pick up Sukarno in Yogyakarta on 28 December.

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 gave the Burmese government a DC-3.