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Airlines asked to cut fares as Christmas, New Year approach
Willem Wandik, a member of the House of Representatives Commission V, has said that airfares for flights from Jakarta to eastern parts of Indonesia are extraordinarily high, partly due to high jet fuel prices.
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A Lion Air plane at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten. The House of Representatives has asked the government to find a way to cut airfares ahead of the Christmas and New Year holiday season. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)
T
he House of Representatives has asked local airlines to lower their fares so that more people, especially those from the eastern parts of Indonesia, can visit their hometowns for the upcoming Christmas and New Year holiday season.
In order to enable airline companies cut their prices, the government as the shareholder should ask state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina to cut the price of aviation fuel, believed to be 25 percent higher than that in Singapore, Willem Wandik, a member of the House Commission V, said.
During a hearing with representatives of the Transportation Ministry and major airline operators in Jakarta on Monday, Willem said that airfares for flights from Jakarta to eastern parts of Indonesia such as Papua were extraordinarily high, partly due to high jet fuel prices.
“For those of us who are living in eastern Indonesia, airfares are very expensive. It is cheaper to fly abroad. A return ticket from Jakarta to Papua costs tens of millions of rupiah. It is crazy,” Willem said.
According to The Jakarta Post’s observations on booking site Traveloka on Monday, the price of a return ticket for the Jakarta-Jayapura route, with one transit and a departure date of Nov. 30 and return date of Dec. 5, ranges between Rp 5.9 million (US$420) and Rp 10.4 million per passenger.
Meanwhile, a return ticket for the Jakarta-Timika route, with a Dec. 9 departure date and Dec. 16 return date, costs Rp 7.1 million on a direct Batik Air flight and Rp 7.7 million on a single-transit Garuda Indonesia flight.
The chairman of Commission V, Lasarus, asked the government to talk with all stakeholders in the aviation industry in order to find a solution to the high airfares.
