airfare discounts offered by garuda ahead of christmas

Garuda Indonesia, the national flag career has promised great airfare special discounts to the travelers on several domestic flights ahead of Christmas and the holiday season of New Year.

Pikri Ilham Kurniansyah Director of Commercial Garuda, said that the company would include 14 routes in the discounted offer starting Wednesday.

“The ticket discount is up to 30 percent to 40 percent for several routes […] flying to specific destinations for the Christmas and New Year holiday, such as Papua and Ambon [in Maluku],” he said in Jakarta on Thursday.

Discounts up to 40 percent are going to be available on selected flights on Tuesday and Thursday as per the official website of Garuda. Pikri also stated that the prices will be evaluated for tickets to make a further decision about the discounts after the holiday season. 

Garuda aside the discounts will also increase its seating capacity, especially for the flights to the holiday destinations such as  Labuan Bajo in East Nusa Tenggara, Denpasar in Bali, Surabaya in East Java and Yogyakarta.

Garuda has previously announced about its preparation to increase 2495 additional seats as an anticipation of a surge in passengers traveling during the holiday season. The additional seats are going to be available from 20th December to January 6th.

Indonesia's aviation industry as a trend observes a spike in air travel during the Christmas and New Year holiday season which results in sky rocketing the airfare. Many airline executives said in a recent hearing with lawmakers that the reason behind unable to lower the prices is the high price of jet fuel.

Partamina, a state owned oil company, which is also the only jet fuel provider company in the country on Monday responded to the complaints by temporarily cutting down the prices of jet fuel by 20 percent at selected airports in eastern Indonesia ahead of the holiday season.

The discounted prices will be applicable between Dec 9 to January 31st at airports in Manado, North Sulawesi; Ambon; and Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.