TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The consistently increasing airlines tariff, starting from the end of 2018, had caused a drastic drop in the number of airline passengers. The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) recorded that the number of domestic passengers from January to March 2019, was dropping by 17.66 percent compared to the same period last year (year on year).

"The factor [of the drop] was high airlines tariff," according to BPS Chairman Suhariyanto at his office in Central Jakarta on Thursday, May 2, 2019.

Based on BPS data, the cumulative number of airline passengers from January until March 2019 was recorded at 18 million. Whereas, in the same period last year, the number of domestic passengers reached up to 22 million.

Nevertheless, the number of passengers for domestic flights in March had experienced a 7.18 percent increase compared to the previous month. The number of airline passengers recorded by BPS in February was 5.6 million passengers. Meanwhile, on March the number increases slightly to 6.03 million.

The increase in the number of passengers were recorded taking place in five airports, namely the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (15.02 percent); the Hasanudin airport in Makassar (7.96 percent); Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali (3.61 percent); and the Kuala Namu International Airport in North Sumatra (1.71 percent).

Suhariyanto explained that the lower number of airline passengers will affect other transportation modes.

"Because the people will prefer to take alternative transportation modes if airlines tariff are expensive," he said.

The airlines tariff increase had indirectly contributed to the increase in the number of ships passengers.

The number of ships' passengers starting from January to March 2019, was recorded to be at 5.09 million passengers. The number is 5.62 percent higher compared to the 4.8 million recorded in the same period last year (month to month).

FRANSISCA CHRISTY ROSANA