The prices are still at the upper limit, so they are still normal. Yes we cannot order it to lower ticket prices arbitrarily, as Garuda is a public company
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Rini Soemarno considered that the prices of Garuda airline tickets are still normal.

"The prices are still at the upper limit, so they are still normal. Yes we cannot order it to lower ticket prices arbitrarily, as Garuda is a public company," Rini said after a groundbreaking at the Ministry of SOEs, here Sunday.

The calculation of ticket prices, according to Rini, has taken into account the structure and operating system of the company, so that the upper limit is still considered not to violate the rules.

Previously, PT Garuda Indonesia's Vice President Corporate Secretary Ikhsan Rosan said that Garuda's ticket prices are the current prices. He made the remark when asked about the ticket prices for Eid (Muslim post-fasting festivities) 2019.

"For us, the current points are the current prices," Ikhsan said.

To cover the prices that are still considered expensive, Ikhsan said it was taken to improve services.

"With the current Garuda prices, we are now trying to improve services," he said.

Contacted separately, aviation expert who is President Director of Aviatory Indonesia Ziva Narendra Arifin explained that currently the airline tickets go to normal prices.

"The public must understand that this adjustment is back towards the approaching range to normal, unfortunately normally it is expensive than we were used to," he said.

Ziva added that the operational cost component of the aircraft to get to the ticket price should go through a long journey.

In these operational costs, there are fixed costs, such as aircraft maintenance costs and variable costs, namely the cost of purchasing fuel.

"We cannot see as suddenly rising and becoming expensive, the operating costs of aircraft operating costs are not cheap and contain many variables," he said.

In addition, Ziva said, airline profit margins differ from other businesses.

The profit margins in the airline business are different from those of retail business which can be 100 percent. If the airline business can reach 40 percent of profit margins per ticket, it would have been very profitable, he said.

Translator: Bambang Purwanto
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2019