Garuda Indonesia has appointed Thomas Sugiarto Oentoro as its president director, the airline’s most senior executive post. Shareholders approved the change at an extraordinary general meeting on Thursday, ending Glenny H. Kairupan’s run of roughly a year in the role.
Kairupan is not leaving the company. The retired military officer, who is a member of President Prabowo Subianto’s Gerindra Party, becomes president commissioner, the chair of Garuda’s supervisory board. He takes over that seat from Fadjar Prasetyo. Under Indonesia’s two-tier board system, the commissioners oversee the directors who run the business day to day, so the reshuffle keeps Kairupan close to the airline’s strategy while handing operational control to Oentoro.
The new chief is familiar with the carrier. Oentoro had been serving as Garuda’s deputy president director, and between 2023 and 2024 he sat on the board as an independent commissioner. In between those two stints he spent 2024 and 2025 as chief risk officer at the Indonesia Investment Authority, the country’s sovereign wealth fund. Earlier in his career he held positions at OCBC and at the private equity firm KV Asia Capital, giving him a background that leans towards finance and risk rather than aviation operations.
He takes charge at a moment when the state-owned airline’s numbers are moving in the right direction.
Revenue has been rising, the fleet has been recovering and losses have narrowed. The harder task, according to The Jakarta Post’s reporting, is converting that recovery into firmer financial and operating results. Rebuilding a fleet and restoring a route network both demand heavy capital spending, which leaves little room for error as the airline tries to grow again. The board change was approved on the same day as the wider reshuffle of the supervisory board, giving the carrier a new leadership line-up at both levels.
The appointment puts a finance specialist at the head of a carrier whose next phase will depend on how it funds aircraft and expansion. Garuda has not yet set out a detailed agenda for the new leadership team. Kairupan’s move to president commissioner also means the outgoing chief will now oversee the executive who served as his deputy. The change gives the board a chief executive who already knows the company from both the management and oversight sides.
