Garuda Responds to Reports of Palangkaraya-Jakarta Flight Tickets Reaching Rp200 Million
Jakarta — Indonesia’s national airline Garuda Indonesia has responded to reports circulating on social media claiming domestic flight ticket prices on online travel agent (OTA) platforms have reached hundreds of millions of rupiah, specifically for flights from Palangkaraya to Jakarta.
Reza Aulia Halim, Director of Commercial Operations at Garuda Indonesia, emphasised that such prices do not originate from Garuda’s official system and were never submitted in the airline’s tariff structure.
“Yesterday there was viral news about a Palangkaraya to Jakarta ticket for Rp200 million under Garuda’s name. That makes no sense because we would never file pricing like that,” Reza said during a press conference held by the Ministry of Tourism on the issue of flight ticket pricing on Tuesday, 17 March 2026.
The inflated prices are suspected to have originated from foreign-based OTA platforms that do not have direct partnerships with the airline. Garuda stated it is currently investigating the source of these prices appearing on ticket-selling systems.
“We are investigating because that is not our partner. Those prices were never submitted in our tariff filing,” he added.
Such practices can create misperceptions among the public that airlines are selling tickets at exorbitant prices, when in fact airlines remain bound by government-set tariff regulations, including maximum fare caps and additional charges such as fuel surcharges.
During the same occasion, Garuda also reaffirmed its commitment to complying with government regulations regarding flight ticket pricing.
“In principle, we continue to comply with applicable regulations, including maximum fare caps and fuel surcharge rules,” Reza stated.
The airline hopes that oversight of ticket-selling platforms, particularly those based abroad, will be strengthened to prevent the display of unrealistic prices.
“Our hope is that we can conduct better monitoring so that displayed prices do not harm passengers or airlines,” he said.
The viral screenshots of flight tickets priced at Rp200 million had previously sparked widespread protest on social media. Later, speculation emerged that the Rp200 million tariff was not the actual price, with suspicions of a technical error on the OTA platform.