Garuda Boss Denies Raising Airline Ticket Prices Fivefold In Holiday Season

JAKARTA - President Director of PT Garuda Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (GIAA) Irfan Setiaputra denied that his party raised the ticket price to five times the usual price during the holiday season. He said his company always follows government regulations.

"That's for God's sake, ma'am, we can't go up and down arbitrarily. This is serious, ma'am, so it doesn't sound everywhere as if we are increasing. Moreover, it's wrong," said Irfan in a hearing with Commission VI of the DPR, at the DPR Building, written Tuesday, December 5.

Furthermore, Irfan also emphasized that his party consistently applies tariffs in accordance with the predetermined Upper Limit Ticket (TBA) price.

"This is not true. If business is business, yes. But if a friend next door doesn't know how much (tickets) are sold. If we are consistent according to TBA, yes," he said.

Regarding the cheaper international ticket price, Irfan said plane tickets would be cheap if they used low-cost carriers (LCC).

Furthermore, Irfan said that Garuda clearly cannot compete with the LCC because it already has different market targets. Irfan admitted that Garuda would not be cheaper because it had its own calculations.

"It's true that it's cheaper to use other (airlines), which are LCC-LCC. We can't be cheaper (tickets abroad). We have our own calculations," he explained.

Previously, Member of Commission VI of the House of Representatives from the PDI-P faction, Evita Nursanty, mentioned the ticket prices for Garuda Indonesia and Citilink aircraft, which often experienced price increases ahead of the holiday moments.

In fact, Evita said the increase in ticket prices for the two airlines could increase by five times the usual price.

"For Citilink and Garuda, if I'm not mistaken, the Ministry of Transportation has made a rule that it can go up 15 percent from the highest price. But we know that during this holiday the increase is not 15 percent but 5 times," said Evita in the meeting.

Evita also mentioned the ticket price of international aircraft which is much cheaper than the ticket price for domestic aircraft such as to Raja Ampat or Bali.

For example, Evita said the price of Citilink tickets to Perth, Australia is much cheaper than domestic tickets to Bali.

"But in reality, overseas tickets can be cheaper than us going to Raja Ampat, Bali," he said.