Citilink

Is Citilink safe?

Yes, on the evidence of its own record. Citilink, the low-cost airline of Garuda Indonesia, has had no fatal accident and has not lost a single aircraft since it began flying on its own certificate in July 2012. That puts it well ahead of Lion Air, its main rival, and just ahead of Lion's full-service sister Batik Air. What holds the score back is a string of runway excursionsRunway excursionWhen an aircraft leaves the runway surface during take-off or landing, either off the end (an overrun) or off the side (a veer-off).More in the glossary at Padang, a 2022 flight on which the captain died at the controls, and money: in April 2025 about a third of the fleet was on the ground. We score it 77.

Citilink or Garuda: which record counts?

Citilink started as a budget brand inside Garuda, flying under Garuda's certificate. It became a separate airline in July 2012, when the DGCA gave it its own air operator certificate (number 121-046, as KNKT reports state). Since then it has flown under its own codes, QG and CTV.

So we split the record at July 2012. Flights before that operated as Garuda and are counted on the Garuda Indonesia page; the ASN database also lists their operator as Garuda. Everything flown as QG since then is counted here. A QG flight number on a ticket sold by Garuda is still a Citilink flight.

What accidents has Citilink had?

Only one event reaches the Aviation Safety Network accident database. On 5 April 2013, flight QG970 from Jakarta, a Boeing 737-300 with 118 people on board, veered left on touchdown at Padang and ran off the side of the runway, stopping about 900 metres from where it landed. The aircraft was damaged and repaired; no deaths or injuries were reported.

Padang is the airport to remember. An A320 slid off the runway there again in September 2013, in a 20-knot crosswind, and on 2 August 2015 another A320 on the same flight number bounced in a thunderstorm, veered left onto the grass and was evacuated by slide. Two passengers went to hospital with shock. Since 2015 there has been no further excursion at Padang in the record.

The serious incidents since 2016

No passenger was reported hurt in any of them, but two say something about how the system around the airline works.

• Surabaya, 17 January 2018. Two Citilink A320s were told to hold over the same point at the same altitude, 20,000 feet, and closed until both collision-avoidance systems issued resolution alerts. KNKT put it down to controller workload, not the crews.
• Ende, 19 November 2021. An ATR 72 from Jakarta Halim struck the airport perimeter fence on approach and landed. KNKT classed it as a serious incident.
• Semarang, 15 May 2022. An A320 from Banjarmasin to Jakarta diverted with damage to one engine and landed safely with 146 passengers.
• Surabaya, 21 July 2022. On QG307 to Makassar the 48-year-old captain went rigid about a minute after take-off. The 26-year-old first officer flew alone and landed back at Surabaya with 171 passengers on board. The captain was dead on arrival at hospital. KNKT's final report, issued in September 2025, found that an abnormal reading at his last resting ECG had not been reviewed further. The DGCA then ordered airlines to monitor crew health, and Citilink hired a company doctor in 2023.
• Karachi, 19 August 2023. An ATR in Citilink colours, far from its usual network on a flight to Riyadh, shut down an engine after a gearbox problem and returned to Karachi. Pakistan's AAIB investigated it as a serious incident.

A death from natural causes is not an accident under ICAO rules, so QG307 counts as a serious incident here. In December 2016 the DGCA grounded a Citilink captain pending a medical check after passengers on a Surabaya–Jakarta flight said his cabin announcement was hard to understand and asked for another pilot. Citilink replaced him, and his alcohol and drug tests at the airport clinic came back negative.

What does Citilink fly?

All jets are Airbus A320-family fly-by-wireFly-by-wireA flight control system in which the pilot's inputs go to computers, which then move the control surfaces. Many such systems also stop unsafe manoeuvres.More in the glossary aircraft, which suits a young airline: 39 A320s and 10 A320neos in January 2025, according to ch-aviation, plus eight ATR 72-600 turboprops for short runways, three A330 widebodies and a single old 737-500 that is not flying. Citilink does not publish an average fleet age.

The problem is how many fly. Garuda's debt crisis left the group short of money for maintenance. In April 2025, 23 Citilink aircraft were on the ground, including 13 A320s, five A320neos and six ATRs. Citilink's president director said in January 2025 that he wanted all 56 of its aircraft serviceable by the end of that year. Parking an aircraft you cannot maintain is the safe choice. But a stretched fleet leaves little slack, and passengers feel it as cancellations.

How to fly Citilink more safely

• Read the aircraft type on the booking. An ATR flight to an eastern island such as Ende lands on a short runway in hilly terrain; daytime departures give the crew more margin.
• Plan around haze from August to October. Forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan cut visibility at airports on both islands. Citilink had 478 flights disrupted by haze in 2026, more than any other Indonesian airline, so leave a spare day before an onward international flight.
• On a wet evening into Padang, keep your belt tight and shoes on until the aircraft has stopped; two of the three excursions there came in rain or gusty crosswind.

How we scored it

The clean accident record (87) carries the score; it is not higher because 14 years under its own certificate is a short record. Fleet (72) scores modern types with no published average age; the parked aircraft are a money problem, not a fleet-quality one, so we describe them but do not score them. Serious incidents (70) reflect the 2021 Ende fence strike and the 2022 captain death; the Padang excursions are older than our 10-year window. Compare Batik Air at 75 and its parent Garuda Indonesia at 74.