Government Yet to Raise Airplane Ticket

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The government has yet to raise the minimum standard of airline ticket.

Acting Director General of Air Transportation of the Ministry of Transportation Santoso Eddy Wibowo, said that it is unlikely for regulators raise the tariff in order to curb the impacts of the rising operational costs of the airline companies due to the weakening of rupiah.

According to Eddy, airline companies are requested to be more efficient to deal with the impacts of rupiah depreciation.

"Airline companies are allowed to economize on many things as long as they don’t sacrifice safety,” he said in Jakarta on Saturday.

In weekend’s trade, Rupiah weakened 37.7 point (0.32 percent) to Rp11.973 per US dollar.

Eddy also said that airlines must from the case of Tigerair Mandala airline.

The airline stopped its operation starting July 1, 2014 as it was no longer able to cope with the rising operational costs.  According to Eddy, the airline wanted to operate in many routes.

In the meantime, Senior Manager Corporate Communications Sriwijaya Air, Agus Soedjono, said that Rupiah depreciation rupiah has given a very big pressure to costs of plane maintenance.

"Like it or not, the management must be efficient in all aspects without sacrificing safety," Agus said.

Garuda Indonesia spokesperson Pujobroto, said that rupiah depreciation has made the price of fuel much higher because they have to buy it by dollar.

He said in normal condition, the costs for fuel makes up 20 to 30 percent from the total operational costs.

"After the rupiah weakens, the portion for fuel spending has risen into around 40 percent," he told Tempo on Friday.

AMIR TEJO | FAIZ NASHRILLAH | KHAIRUL ANAM | SETIAWAN ADIWIJAYA