Airlines sign deal on joint ticketing

JAKARTA (JP): Six domestic airlines will sign an agreement on the joint adoption of endorsable tickets later this month to put an end to discounting wars, an executive said yesterday.

Chairman of the Indonesian Air Carriers Association Soelarto Hadisumarto said here that the country's six scheduled airlines -- Sempati Air, Merpati Nusantara, Garuda Indonesia, Bouraq Indonesia, Mandala Airlines and Dirgantara Air Service -- will sign the agreement on Oct. 28.

"The endorsable ticketing system will hopefully be effective early next year," he said.

He said that the airline executives, who approved the planned agreement on Oct. 5, have assigned special teams to study various aspects of endorsable ticketing, such as insurance and legal affairs.

Endorsable ticketing will allow a passenger to use the same ticket on any of the six air carriers serving the same route. Ticketing will be arranged by Inaca and sold thorough travel agents belonging to the Indonesian Association of Travel Agents.

He said that the airlines will be able to collect their accounts through BCA Bank, which has been appointed to support the system.

"However, the airlines will still be able to issue their own discounted tickets for selected customers," he said.

The six airlines signed an agreement last year on the amount of tolerable discounting for students, veterans and elderly people. Violators face a fine of Rp 10 million (US$4,388).

Five of the six scheduled domestic airlines have been fined for giving excessive airfare discounts since the agreement was implemented in July 1994.

According to Soelarto, endorsable ticketing will help end "discounting wars."(icn)