New system for air tickets

New system for air tickets

JAKARTA (JP): Domestic travelers will enjoy greater freedom in
choosing who they fly with next year by using endorsable tickets
issued by any of the country's six scheduled airlines.

The new domestic ticketing system will be provided under an
agreement signed by the six airlines yesterday.

The agreement on the endorsable ticketing system was signed by
the chairman of the Indonesian Air Carriers Association, Soelarto
Hadisumarto, the International Air Transport Association's
general manager for Indonesia, Djuarsa Joedadibrata, and Bank
Central Asia (BCA) president Abdullah Ali.

Soelarto said BCA would act as the coordinator or clearing
bank for the billing system of the scheme to start in January.

"We still have to prepare travel agents and computer systems
for the new ticketing system," he said.

The six airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Merpati Nusantara
Airlines, Bouraq Indonesia, Mandala Airlines, Sempati Air and
Dirgantara Air Service, began discussing the idea of endorsable
tickets about two years ago in a bid to end their price war.

But the scheme's implementation was delayed several times
after the airlines signed a preliminary agreement in November
1995. The problems affecting the introduction of the system were
mainly technical, including the validity of endorsable tickets,
baggage handling, insurance, accounting systems, documentation
and billing.

Soelarto said that rules for the new system would be drafted
soon because endorsable tickets, to be sold only by travel
agents, could not be discounted and, therefore, their prices
would be higher than non-endorsable tickets.

Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto, who witnessed
the agreement at his office, said yesterday that any companies
found violating the system would face a service route cut as the
toughest sanction.

He refused to give further details. (icn)