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GARUDA Indonesia airline is considering raising flight ticket fares if the new normal last long enough.
According to Garuda Indonesia’s President Director, Irfan Setiaputra at a virtual press conference in Jakarta on Friday (6/5) said that under normal conditions there were new health protocols that had to be implemented, one of which was maintaining distance between passengers (physical distancing).
“The procedure requires Garuda to vacate the middle seat, resulting in a limited occupancy of passengers only a maximum of 50%. We agreed with distancing, we will empty the middle seat. If the community is not safe it will be provoked, but by riding Garuda every sense of business class. The problem is, with that it lasts more than anything else, there are financial implications, maybe we can raise the prices of passengers, of course,” he said.
He added, thus, revenue was also reduced, therefore Garuda Indonesia needed to consider tariff increases, because the impact was on the company’s finances.
He affirmed that airline revenue had dropped by 90% due to the fact that as many as 70 aircraft were not operating or being grounded during the COVID-19 pandemic. The condition is exacerbated by the temporary suspension of flights to and from China, pilgrimage and the cancellation of pilgrimage activities this year.
“Indeed, it dropped dramatically, we were very shocked. When the Chinese flight closed we were still smiling, our umrah closed still had a sense, but when COVID-19 came this was difficult. Other efforts made by Garuda Indonesia to survive the pandemic, namely accelerating the completion of contracts by 135 pilots out of a total of 1,400 pilots and postponement of salaries for employees, directors and commissioners last April,” he noted.
Irfan Setiaputra also explained, so, this can be conveyed, this is the bottom line every morning I see financial planning, hopefully every morning the assumptions change to maximize existing income, we keep pressing costs. In addition, Garuda has also submitted new proposals to sukuk holders for payments that were due on June 3, to be relaxed for the next three years.
“This will be formalized on June 10, Garuda’s proposal has been approved by bonds holders, this shows that Garuda is transparent and submits this proposal, which will be the most current in the current situation,” he concluded. [antaranews/photo special]
