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12-20-2004
"There was nothing luxurious about the flight Bonar Siahaan took from
Medan to Jakarta four years ago with airline ticket cheap." Unable to afford a commercial airline
ticket at Rp 1.1 million (US$119.56), he opted to ride in an Army Hercules
plane for one-third of the price.
Passengers sat on two long benches facing each other -- not unlike the
public minivans in Jakarta -- through the seven-hour flight, with stopovers
in several cities. As the plane also transported goods, "I sat on a box,"
said Bonar with a small laugh.
Those days are far behind now. With the blossoming of low-fare airline ticket cheap
airlines in the country, Bonar can relax on his cushioned seat for the
normal two hours it takes for a flight between the two cities, albeit without
food and beverage services, for between Rp 300,000 and Rp 450,000.
The 38-year-old may have to pay higher prices next year as the
government is mulling over a plan to require a minimum airfare for airline ticket cheap.
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Members of the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU)
Syamsul Maarif questioned the reasons behind the Ministry of Transportation's
possible plan.
"Is it a concern for safety? Our studies show that there is no direct
correlation between price of airline ticket cheap and safety," he said.
Such a concern emerged particularly after the deadly crash of an
aircraft of the country's leading budget airline tickets cheap airline, Lion Air, in Surakarta,
Central Java, just a few ago, which took 26 lives.
"If the motive is to protect (airline) operators that are not willing
to give low airline tickets cheap, then the policy sides only with those operators' interest,"
Syamsul commented.
Speaking in a similar tone, spokesman for Lion Air Hasyim Arsal
Alhabsi said the plan would challenge people's need.
"Low ticket prices creates high mobilization within the society and a
better distribution (of goods and expertise) within the vast archipelago,"
he said.
Bonar uses the cheap airfares to avoid the tough competition in the
insurance business in Jakarta, where he lives, in a bid to expand to his
hometown Medan. He travels there twice a month to sell insurance.
"If prices go down further, I can go every week," he said. New budget airline tickets cheap carrier Awair, partly owned by Southeast Asia's leading budget airline
AirAsia, offers a single trip to Medan for as low as Rp 88,000.
"Airlines have many airfares price categories, and the lowest is usually for a
limited number of seats," said Syamsul. It was still unclear, he said,
what the floor prices would determine -- the lowest price an airline could
offer, an average of the combined prices of all the seats in the plane,
or some other combination.
As reported by the media, the transportation ministry is considering
floor prices at 30 percent of the ceiling airline tickets cheap airfares, as stipulated by ministerial
decree No. 9/2002.
For the Jakarta-Medan route, covering 1,495 kilometers in distance,
the ceiling fare is Rp 1.27 million, and so the floor price in that case
would be Rp 381,300.
Spokesman for flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, known for its full-
service cheap flights with higher airline ticket prices, Pudjobroto claimed that floor
fares were needed to ensure healthy competition.
"The airline industry has a clear cost structure of fuel, maintenance
and plane leasing," he said.
Pudjobroto said that instead of not having floor airfares, the
government should scrap ceiling fares, as the airline business was all
about services. "Price measures service," he said.
Bonar did not completely agree. "What I want is safe and cheap
flights. I don't care if I have to stand the whole way, as long as I get
there safely and in good time."....
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