Garuda to offer reduced prices for pilgrimage tours

JAKARTA (JP): The country's national airline, Garuda Indonesia, is offering low prices for minor haj pilgrimage tours to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to compete with the foreign airlines which it accuses of discounting airfares to gain market share for the same route.

"We want to increase our share because a number of overseas airlines serving the Indonesia-Middle East route have grabbed market shares by dumping their airfares," said Garuda's general manager for Jakarta, Iwan H. Susilo. He briefed reporters after presenting the tour package to travel agents yesterday.

He said it was widely known that many Indonesians had been attracted to fly with a number of overseas airlines serving the Indonesia-Middle East route because they offered much cheaper airfares.

Some 60,000 people went on the minor haj pilgrimage or umrah last year, but only 7,000 of them flew Garuda, he said.

Among the overseas airlines linking Indonesia and Saudi Arabia via their countries of origin are Gulf Air, Emirates, Malaysian Airlines, Pakistan Airlines and Royal Brunei.

Garuda's general manager for Saudi Arabia, Mahmud Effendi Ibrahim, said that during the low season a one-way, Jakarta- Jeddah ticket on Garuda cost US$450, while other airlines charged only $300.

"There are some 600,000 Indonesian workers in the Middle East, most of them prefer overseas airlines for cheaper airfares."

He said that last year Garuda served the Jakarta-Jeddah route three times per week with a capacity of 57,000 seats, but only 28,000 passengers used Garuda.

"In the first seven months of this year, the occupancy rate reached 60 percent. We expect to see a higher figure by the end of this year," Ibrahim said.

There are five types of trips in the newly launched tour package, costing between US$1,660 and US$2,785 during the low season from Sep. 4 to Dec. 31.

Valid from Sept. 4, 1996, to Jan. 28, 1997, the tour package will include a round-trip economy class air ticket for the Jakarta-Jeddah-Jakarta route and the Jeddah-Medina-Jeddah route, accommodation at a standard or luxury hotel, Indonesian meals, the arrangement of visas and other documentation, luggage and a guided pilgrimage.

Garuda also has tour packages to Hong Kong, Singapore, Perth (Australia), Honolulu-Los Angeles (the United States) and New Zealand to attract more passengers to its overseas routes. (icn)