Jakarta – ASITA (Association of the Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies) East Kalimantan Chapter has introduced a service fee for domestic ticket sales in a bid to improve its members’ revenues.

The service fee applicable per ticket will be 30,000 rupiah (US$3.30) for tickets with a published price of up to 600,000 rupiah and five per cent for tickets with a published price more than 600,000 rupiah. The fee will apply to ticket sales with a payment term of more than two weeks. The majority of ticket sales for East Kalimantan, especially in its capital Balikpapan, are from corporates (oil and mining industry), with payment terms between two weeks and three months or more.

ASITA East Kalimantan Chapter chairman, Mr Suhermanto, said: “With many Indonesian airlines operating on a market mechanism, air fares have been dropping in the past few years.

“This means even if our commission remains at seven per cent, revenues have been much reduced (compared to five or six years ago).

“In the meantime, many companies take their time to pay and this disrupts our (small and medium company) members’ cash flow.”

Mr Suhermanto said corporate clients had benefited from the deregulation. Therefore adding a service fee should not be a problem, he added.

The service charge is the latest breakthrough for the ASITA chapter following a successful move to cap minimum selling prices and applying sanctions on violations.

Balikpapan-based agent Totogasono Sekawan’s general manager, Ms Wilyan Levin, said: “Applying the surcharge is a good move, but it needs time to implement, especially with longtime clients. There have been negotiations with clients and the ASITA board has to make some adjustments.”

However, Jakarta-based BTI Vayatour, which has big clients in East Kalimantan, is wary about the move.

BTI Vayatour marketing and business development manager, Mr Andhie Saad, said: “Jakarta agents who do not have a branch in East Kalimantan but need to issue tickets there must go through local agents. The addition of the service fee to our own costs will raise prices and make our clients switch to the local agents.

“The way I see it, the agents there are moving towards a monopoly and the fact that ASITA East Kalimantan protested Garuda Indonesia’s decision to allow our implant offices to have our own domestic ticket printer is proof of this.

“But they forget corporate deals with travel management companies are more than just ticketing. There is a lack of human resources the local agents have to overcome when they want to compete with us.”