Govt Yet to Raise Airline Ticket Ceiling Price

The government has said it will not raise the airline ticket ceiling price, unless the cost of aviation fuel (avtur) and the rupiah rate against the US dollar both increased by 10 per cent.

“We will raise (the ceiling price) if the fuel price and the rupiah rate increased 10 per cent,” the Transportation Ministry`s Director for Air Transportation, Maria Kristi Endah Murni, said here on Thursday.

The rupiah rate during the past two or three weeks had increased just by 6.67 per cent though fuel price had gone up by 40 per cent, she said.

During the Eid-al-Fitr homecoming season, airlines set their ticket rates at the ceiling price. “Now they did not pursue the floor price, but ceiling price during the homecoming season,” she pointed out.

Currently, the airline ticket floor price was set at 30 per cent of its ceiling price.

“We have responded to the airlines` demand, and they can understand our decision,” she said.

Earlier, the Indonesia National Air Carriers Association (Inaca) had proposed an increase of the airline ticket floor price to 40 per cent of its ceiling price, following the increase of fuel price by 40 per cent.

The Inaca chairman, Pahala N Mansury, said both Inaca and Garuda Indonesia had proposed the tariff adjustment since mid-2017.

“Now the floor price was set at 30 per cent of its ceiling price. We hope that it could be adjusted to 40 per cent of the ceiling price,” Pahala said.

He explained that 90 per cent of airlines` spending was in US dollars, and 30 per cent of its operational cost was to buy avtur.

With the rupiah depreciation had reached four to five per cent currently, the operational cost had increased by 17 per cent.

“Almost all of our expenditure is in US dollars, while income is in rupiah. Last year the price of avtur was 29 per cent lower, and now it`s 12 per cent higher,” he pointed out.

courtesy : Antaranews.com
photo : Republika

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