Domestic airport taxes

Domestic airport taxes

From Kompas

I am a tourist guide for a travel agency and I would like to
pose a question to PT Angkasa Pura at the Soekarno-Hatta
International Airport.

On April 9, 1997, our guests arrived in Jakarta on flight TG
413 at 4:25 p.m. The group consisted of 29 tourists on their way
to Yogyakarta aboard flight GA 440 which was scheduled for
takeoff at 7:30 p.m. Before check in, the tourists and their
luggage exited through gate I on their way to gate III.

I collected all boarding passes of flight TG 413 to affirm
that they did not need to pay domestic airport tax. After that, I
checked in at the Garuda Indonesia Airways counter for flight GA
440 and asked one of the staff members whether we would be
charged airport tax. I was told the TG 413 boarding passes would
suffice for embarking without payment.

But it was a different situation. When I requested a transit
stamp at the airport tax counter, PT Angkasa Pura personnel
forced the tour leader to settle payment. They said Garuda had
not informed them or marked it on the computer that 29 passengers
from TG 413 were in transit and would board a GA 440 flight.

The tour leader paid Rp 319,000 in airport tax for all 29
members of the tour. After the tourists had passed through the
entrance gate, I checked again with another Garuda employee. They
said we should not have been made to pay airport tax.

I request passengers, particularly foreign tourists in
transit, should be given detailed information on airport tax,
since our recent experience would surely tarnish the image of
Jakarta's international airport service sector.

Name and address

known to the editor