RI opposes Qantas', Ansett's tariff cuts
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said here yesterday that he would send a letter to his Australian counterpart, criticizing the tariff cuts offered by Qantas and Ansett in Indonesia.
The minister said that Indonesia and Australia had a bilateral agreement to avoid a price war in the aviation industry.
"I've just learned that the Australian air carriers, Qantas and Ansett, have offered cheaper airfares on their Indonesian routes."
He said that Indonesia would also express its disapproval with Singapore's SilkAir offering free tickets from Singapore to Indonesia for some passengers.
"The airline has introduced a special promotion, presenting free tickets from Singapore to Manado to passengers flying from Europe to Singapore."
Haryanto said that the gimmick was hurting Indonesian airlines.
Almost all foreign airlines serving Indonesia had launched gimmicks to attract more passengers by reducing their fares during the low season -- from August to mid December.
In November, Qantas and Ansett started offering cheap airfares on their Indonesia-Australia flights.
Ansett's top executive in Indonesia, Con Korfiatis, and Qantas' sales manager, Ronny Mampouw, said over the weekend that their airlines cut the price of a Jakarta-Sydney-Jakarta ticket from about US$600 or $700 to only $350 effective only for last month.
Haryanto stressed yesterday that he only objected to Ansett, Qantas and SiklAir cutting their rates in Indonesia.
"I don't mind other airlines reducing their fares."
Haryanto said yesterday that the Indonesia National Air Carriers Association (INACA) had the right to raise domestic economy-class airfares.
"I just warned them that an increase (in fares) must be done gradually."
The government has recently approved an airfare hike, ranging between 7 percent and 10 percent, as proposed by INACA. The new airfares were introduced on Oct. 27.
Sources said that another hike would take place on Dec. 15, with an average increase of about 10 percent.
Indonesia has six airlines including Bouraq Airlines, Dirgantara Air, Garuda Mandala Airlines, Merpati Nusantara and Sempati Air. (icn)