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Garuda Indonesia customers to enjoy easy ticket payments
Air travelers who opt to fly with state-owned carrier Garuda Indonesia are now able to pay for their tickets at their nearest ATM following the launch of a new payment system operated by local interbank network provider Artajasa
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ir travelers who opt to fly with state-owned carrier Garuda Indonesia are now able to pay for their tickets at their nearest ATM following the launch of a new payment system operated by local interbank network provider Artajasa.
Garuda customers previously could only use a limited number of ATMs for ticket payments after they booked tickets online. But with the new partnership, they can pay via Artajasa's extensive ATM Bersama and non-ATM Bersama network, which covers a total of 83 banks.
'This is a breakthrough that will make it easier for customers anywhere, including in small districts, to purchase tickets,' Garuda Indonesia marketing and sales director Erik Meijer said on Wednesday after the launch.
Artajasa's ATM Bersama network has been adopted by a wide range of banks from state-owned (Bank Mandiri, BNI, BRI), to foreign (HSBC, Citibank, Rabobank) and regional banks (Bali, West Java, East Java, North Sumatra), among others.
Garuda's customers are now able to pay for their tickets using any ATM under Artajasa's online payment system called 'Transfer for Payment'.
'Transfer for Payment is a payment mechanism that uses the interbank transfer feature in the ATM Bersama network. Customers can make a payment from their bank accounts to a recipient account using the recipient's bank code,' Artajasa president director Arya Damar said.
Indonesia's emerging middle class and productive age population have created a boom in the country's e-commerce, with more and more people making purchases online, from clothes, household needs to airline tickets.
The country's e-commerce market is expected to grow to US$25 billion in 2016 from only $8 billion last year, according to Indonesian e-commerce provider Vela Asia.
The number of transactions through Garuda's online sales channels is expected to increase by 10 percent by the end of this year with the newly launched payment system, according to Erik. Online transactions currently account for 20 percent of Garuda's total transactions.
Garuda's online sales channels consist of Garuda Online Sales (GOS) for retail consumers and Corporate Online Sales (COS) for corporate customers.
Oryza Hatta, 23, a university student who frequently flies with Garuda from Jakarta to his hometown in Medan, North Sumatra, welcomed the cooperation between Garuda and Artajasa, saying that it would make it easier for those with regional banks accounts to pay for their reserved tickets.
Some of his family members usually have to make a special trip to a local travel agent when they want to purchase tickets because their local bank, Bank Sumut, was previously not connected to Garuda or any other airlines' payment systems.
'I am pretty sure that this [partnership between Garuda and Artajasa's ATM network] will be good news for them because they can now pay for their tickets through any ATM,' he said.
With a rising number of air travelers in the country, Garuda had expanded its routes and was upbeat that the company would book between a 10 and 20 percent increase in revenues this year from $3.72 billion last year, Garuda spokesperson Pujobroto said.
During the company's recent three-day travel fair, Garuda recorded transactions amounting to Rp 70 billion ($6.1 million).
