IT was a bright morning and the temperature 10 degrees Celsius when the plane touched down at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam on Wednesday last week. Captain Ari Sapari announced a welcoming party was waiting outside. Everyone rejoiced and applauded when an airport fire truck spayed the whole length of the plane’s fuselage over and over with water.

The watery welcome marked the return of Garuda Indonesia to Europe after six years of absence. The