Sempati Air to drop voucher system
Sempati Air to drop voucher system
JAKARTA(JP): Sempati Air, one of Indonesia's private airlines, is to drop its On Time Guarantee program (OTG), a voucher system introduced in 1991 to assure passengers of the carrier's efforts to provide on-time schedules.
"The measure has not created an internal self-drive for the management to offer the public on-time schedules. Moreover, OTG will not be applicable when the system of endorsable tickets is applied later this year,"Sempati's president Hasan M. Soedjono said yesterday.
The endorsable ticket system will allow passengers to fly on any of the country's six scheduled air carriers on domestic routes.
He said that passengers were looking for real on-time schedules from Sempati instead of the vouchers.
Sempati gives OTG vouchers to its passengers for any flight delayed for more than 26 minutes. The air carrier credits each minute's delay as worth Rp 2,000, but the maximum compensation for each passenger on one flight Rp 120,000 for 60 minutes. Combined with cash payments, passengers could use the non- cashable vouchers to buy new tickets from Sempati.
The company issues vouchers worth Rp 2.25 billion per month and receives payment with the vouchers of approximately Rp 1 billion per month.
Hasan said that OTG vouchers would not be issued after March 14, but Sempati would still honor vouchers from customers for the next six months.
"OTG is Sempati's life and blood. No other air carrier in the world applies such a program to give assurances for on-time schedules. But we have to drop it. The OTG fund will then be allocated for our fleet plan."
However, he admitted that there have been several delays on Sempati's schedules for a variety of reasons.
"For instance, during the big floods in Jakarta recently, Sempati could not perform any on-time schedules."
Sempati's current rate of on-time performance with delays of only up to 10 minutes is 65 percent, with delays of up to 20 minutes 80 percent and with delays of less than 60 minutes at almost 100 percent, he said.
According to Hasan, the elimination of the OTG is one of the adjustments Sempati will make to join the planned endorsable ticketing system.
"We realize that other airlines won't accept any payments for the endorsable tickets with OTG vouchers," he said.
The six airlines have agreed to issue endorsable tickets for domestic flights starting this year, in order to prevent an airfare war.
The agreement was signed last November by executives from Mandala Airlines, Sempati Air, Garuda Indonesia, Merpati Nusantara, Bouraq Indonesia and Dirgantara Air Service.
The implementation of the agreement, however, has been delayed several times from its original starting date of earlier this year due to many unresolved details, including regulations on baggage handling, insurance, accounting systems and billing.
Going public
Hasan said yesterday that Sempati, which is preparing an initial public offering of its shares, would be affected if the government did not revise domestic airfares this year.
"I believe all domestic airlines will be hurt," he said, adding that domestic airfares should ideally be raised by 15 to 20 percent.
He also said that Sempati would offer between 15 and 30 percent of its shares to the public and expected to raise about Rp 200 to 300 billion from the flotation.
Hasan said that Sempati's plan to go public would enliven the stock market in Indonesia, as the carrier will be the first to offer its shares to the public.
The eight-year-old Sempati is 25 percent owned by Humpuss group, a diversified business conglomerate controlled by President Soeharto's youngest son Hutomo Mandala Putra, 40 percent by PT Tri Usaha Bakti, a holding company of the Armed Forces and 35 percent by Nusamba Group, chaired by the country's timber businessman Mohammad (Bob) Hasan.
Sempati currently operates five Fokker 27s, seven Fokker 100s, eight Boeing 737-200s, two Fokker 70s and three Airbus 300-B4s. (icn)