TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government has officially determined that the upper limit of flight tickets tariff will be lowered by 12 to 16 percent.

"Of course, the [airfare cut] of a route is not the same to other routes, and it doesn't have to be the same. But, it averagely ranges from 12 to 16 percent, we have yet calculated the exact number. We hope it will be 15 percent," said Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Darmin Nasution in his office on Monday, May 13, 2019.

The 12-percent cut will be valid for Java routes, while other reductions will take effect for other routes such as flights to Jayapura.

The decision was made after the government recorded the soaring price of domestic flight tickets since the end of 2018, and that the tariff did not decrease after January 10, 2019.

The price hike caused a public uproar, especially nearing the Eid homecoming season. Moreover, Darmin said that the increase was relatively higher than that of other transportations.

In the first quarter of 2019, Darmin noted the air transportation tariff increased by 11.14 percent. The figure was relatively high when compared to that of the bus at 1.69 percent, trains at 2.44 percent, sea transportation at 2.01 percent, and ferry transportation at 1.69 percent.

Increased tariffs then influenced national inflation. In April, the inflation rose by 2.27 percent compared to that of last month or 30.07 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, the airfare upper limit for domestic flights was previously regulated in the Transportation Ministerial Decree (KM) No. 72/2019. The policy had never been changed significantly since 2014 and was suspected to be the factor of the sluggish reduction of the high airlines tariff.

"Transportation Ministry will revise the regulation concerning the upper limit tariff. Hopefully, it will complete within one to two days," Darmin added, saying that he would communicate the matter with the SOE Minister Rini Soemarno and so let airlines take measures to adjust the airfare.

CAESAR AKBAR