Erick Thohir Worried There Will Be A Monopoly In The Aviation Industry If Garuda Indonesia's Problems Are Not Solved, Refers To The Lion Air Group?

Garuda Indonesia aircraft. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) Erick Thohir said that the problem with PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk was not just the plane, but the ecosystem. Therefore, he is worried that there will be a national aviation monopoly by the domestic aviation industry, if Garuda's problems are not immediately resolved.

Meanwhile, the Special Staff to the Minister of SOEs, Arya Sinulingga, said that the possibility of a monopoly would increase if there were fewer players in the Indonesian aviation industry. According to him, this is business logic.

"What he means (Mr. Erick) is that if Garuda doesn't fly anymore, there will be only a few players, this is just business logic. There is a chance for a few players to have a bigger monopoly. Not accusing other parties of monopolizing flights," said the Special Staff to VOI, Thursday, January 27.

Lion Air the 'King of the Air' in Indonesia

As previously reported, the COVID-19 pandemic has not weakened the competition between Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air Group. Competition between these airlines is still high, even though the airline industry is battered by the pandemic in 2020.

Based on data from the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub), Lion Group has succeeded in surpassing Garuda Indonesia in the realm of domestic routes throughout 2020. The airline under the command of Rusdi Kirana recorded better performance, seen from market share and the number of passengers served.

As is known, the COVID-19 pandemic that entered the country on March 2, 2020 made the government close access to foreign nationals (WNA). Thus, the airline industry only serves domestic routes.

Cumulatively, the Lion Air Group, which consists of three airlines, namely Lion Air, Batik Air, and Wings Air, managed to transport up to 21.48 million passengers or have a market share of up to 60.6 percent.

However, if you look at it year on year (yoy), this achievement has fallen to 46.2 percent. Even so, the numbers weren't bad. Because, this achievement illustrates that Lion Group has succeeded in convincing the majority of air transport passengers during the pandemic to use their services.

Meanwhile, Garuda Indonesia and Citilink Indonesia only managed to transport 10.04 million passengers with a market share of 28.3 percent. Their market share actually decreased compared to the 2019 realization which was 34.5 percent.

Lion Air Group's Corporate Strategic Danang Mandala Prihantoro said one strategy to attract passengers' trust to choose to fly using his airline is to develop onboard entertainment.

The entertainment offered includes a variety of films, playing games, reading magazines and much more. For this period, the most interesting thing is watching free movies from genres such as Indonesian, Hollywood and Korean films.

This entertainment, said Danang, is connected via wireless inflight entertainment (W-IFE) from AirFi (PT Dua Surya Dinamika) which is accessed from all smart phones (smartphones), tablets, laptops with the operating system (OS) - the system software that manages the resources. such as iOS, Android, Windows, BBM, Linux and more

"Entertainment with each passenger's gadget or device is one form of efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 so that passengers can enjoy entertainment that is served comfortably and safely," he said.

Then, said Danang, his party also echoed the campaign that flying is safe. By ensuring that all flight operations are carried out in accordance with aspects of safety, security and guided by health protocols.

Danang said this was done because domestic routes were still a market that had to be served. Because people still travel by air during the pandemic.

"This year's strategy (2021) is still carrying out what was done in 2020. In terms of the convenience of health services to entertainment. This is because we are still in the framework of analyzing the market during the pandemic alert period. This year we still have optimism about the aviation market trend better," he said.

Lion Air is keen to expand its route

Throughout 2020, the airline has also consistently maintained its market share along with the opening of potential route operations. The old routes are also gradually reopening after the spread of COVID-19 is considered to be decreasing.

As of August 2020, Danang said Lion Air was keen to expand domestic routes, including Medan Kualanamu-Bandung, Bandung-Denpasar, Denpasar-Medan Kualanamu, Balikpapan-Bandung, Bandung-Balikpapan, Makassar-Bandung, and Bandung-Makassar.

Then, Pekanbaru-Bandung, Bandung-Pekanbaru, Palembang-Bandung, and Bandung-Palembang. Wings Air also did the same thing by opening the Makassar-Tana Toraja, Makassar-Palu, Kupang-Ruteng, and Kupang-Lewoleba routes.

Danang said the important key to maintaining market share is cooperation with health facilities to facilitate rapid antibody test services, which last year was still a requirement for flights.