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View all search resultsTransit flights culprit behind high ‘mudik’ fares, govt says
Some online travel agents have stepped in line with the government's calls for clearer information on ticket availability and transit flights, especially those with overseas layovers, to help mudik travelers reach their holiday destinations.
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Passenger planes from several airlines are reflected on June 6, 2016, in a window of a terminal building at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten. (Antara/Fanny Octavianus)
T
he Transportation Ministry has pointed to transit flights as a major reason behind persisting high prices for domestic flights, despite the government’s fare discount stimulus ahead of this year's concurrent Nyepi (Day of Silence) and Idul Fitri holidays.
The ministry’s Air Transportation Director Agustinus Budi Hartono linked the high airfares circulating on social media to transit flights, explaining that economy class tickets for direct domestic flights, which were eligible for the government discount, had sold out.
“It turns out that some transit [flights] have more than one [stop], causing the prices to swell,” Agustinus told a press conference on Tuesday.
Citing an example, he said direct flights were unavailable to travel from Manokwari in West Papua to Padang in West Sumatra, so passengers had to shell out between Rp 8 million (US$471.75) and Rp 9 million for a flight that transited in Jakarta.
But Agustinus said the ministry had recently found tickets as high as Rp 16-17 million for transit flights plying this route, which created “a slight misperception among the public”.
He added that some foreign airlines were offering tickets for flights to domestic destinations that required transiting abroad, suggesting this practice “violated” Indonesia's cabotage principle mandating that domestic routes be served by local airlines.
Agustinus called on online travel agents (OTAs) to maintain a "conducive situation" during the long Idul Fitri holiday by providing clearer information to the public, particularly on ticket availability.
