Garuda Indonesia says it will maintain domestic fares
Garuda Indonesia says it will maintain domestic fares
JAKARTA (JP): National flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will
maintain its domestic fares although several other local airlines
have announced higher fares.
"It is not timely to raise the domestic fares at present when
the buying power of people is still low," Pujobroto, spokesman
for state-owned Garuda, said on Wednesday.
He said with the current fares, the airline operator would
still be able to cope with the rising operating costs.
At present Garuda's domestic fare for economy class for the
Jakarta-Surabaya route is Rp 594,000, Jakarta-Medan Rp 1,049,000,
Jakarta-Batam Rp 738,000, Jakarta-Manado Rp 1.701,000, Jakarta-
Makassar Rp 1,085,000, Jakarta-Denpasar Rp727,000 and Jakarta-
Solo Rp 412,000.
The Indonesian National Air Carriers Association (INACA)
announced the rise in the exchange rate standard used by its
members to set U.S.dollar-based fares in a range between Rp 5,000
and Rp 9,000 per U.S. dollar, from the previous range of Rp 4,000
to Rp 7,500. The new standard will come into effect in June.
The rise in the exchange rate would pave the way for local
airline operators to increase their fares. Most of them have said
that their fares had been too low but they could not raise them
due to the low exchange rate standard.
Several local airline companies including state-owned Merpati
Nusantara said the new exchange rate standard would enable them
to raise their domestic fares beginning next month.
Pujobroto said Garuda would maintain its exchange rate
reference of Rp 7,500 per U.S. dollar for domestic fares despite
the rise in INACA's exchange rate benchmark.
INACA chairman Wahyu Hidayat said earlier that the adjustment
of the exchange rate had to be made to curb the rising operating
costs resulting from the sharp drop in the value of the rupiah
against the U.S. dollar.
"Almost 80 percent of the local carriers' operational costs
are paid in U.S. dollars, while their earnings are in rupiah,"
Wahyu said. (03)