Domestic airline to use endorsable ticket system

JAKARTA (JP): After two years preparation, six domestic airlines will introduce today endorsable tickets allowing passengers to use tickets from one airline on other carriers.

The Indonesian National Air Carriers Association's (INACA) chairman, Soelarto Hadisumarto, said yesterday the endorsable ticket system aimed to end the price war among the six scheduled domestic airlines. They are Garuda Indonesia, Merpati Nusantara Airlines, Bouraq Indonesia, Mandala Airlines, Sempati Air and Dirgantara Air Service.

"The endorsable ticket system will be fully operational later this month or early June. We using this one-month period as a soft operation," he said after reporting to the minister of transportation, Haryanto Dhanutirto.

Soelarto said INACA would arrange ticket distribution to several ticket sales offices and travel agencies over the next month.

Domestic passengers who hold endorsable tickets can change their booking to another airline they cannot use their original booking.

Changes will be allowed if there is a delay of at least two hours or a canceled flight.

Soelarto said other reasons to allow changes were being discussed.

He said Bank Central Asia had been appointed as the clearing bank to supervise payments for endorsable tickets.

Haryanto said the scheme, technically supported by the International Air Transport Association, would be effective in ending the price war.

"I am quite happy this system is now ready after two years of preparation," he said.

"Any discounts from travel agents or the airlines will no longer exist. Sometimes I was confused because some airlines cried out for government-mandated higher fares but several others were willing to offer fare discounts of up to 40 percent," he said.

He said government-set airfares would not change.

Under Decree No. 20/1996, dated April 3, 1996, and signed by Haryanto, airfares were increased for both jet and non-jet services.

The increases ranged between US$0.11 a passenger a kilometer for a distance over 1,500 kilometers for jets and Rp $0.108 a passenger a kilometer for a distances over 150 kilometers for other planes.

Airfare hikes will be calculated automatically every six months in line with the rupiah's fluctuation against the U.S. dollar.

In 1995 the six airlines signed an agreement limiting discounts for travel agents to seven percent, far less than previous discounts of more than 40 percent. (icn)