Minister Uno Reveals Why Domestic Airfare Still Expensive

Jakarta – Indonesian Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno revealed that the cause of high domestic flight ticket prices. Even, the tickets are more expensive compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. 

"The cause is because of the two things. First, because of the number of aircraft. Second, the lack of flights in Indonesia and the availability of seats," the Minister said during the Weekly Brief With Sandi Uno (WBSU), on Monday. 

According to Minister Uno, this contributes greatly. Then, fuel costs also have an effect. 

"The increase in domestic airfares is very high compared to before the pandemic. Where the most expensive flight routes are to Eastern Indonesia and several tourist destinations, one of which is Sumba, NTT," he remarked. 

"Sumba is expensive, from Bali to Sumba, this is one of the complaints (from the public)," he added. 

The Minister acknowledged that expensive ticket prices give a disadvantage for the tourism industry and creative economy. For this reason, his team is doing various ways to reduce airplane ticket prices.   

"We want to make airplane ticket prices affordable, then increase flight options to tourist destinations," 

The way to overcome this is obviously with collaboration across ministries and institutions, also with airlines, as well as several incentive policies by local governments, he concluded.