Ministry Postpones Scrapping Airplane Ticket Counters in Airports
Jakarta. The Ministry of Transportation is postponing for up to three months its plan to close ticket counters at Indonesian airports, a senior official at the ministry said on Tuesday.
"We are talking about all airports, so the promotion of regulations and preparation will take around three months' time," Hadi Mustofa Djuraid, adviser to the transportation minister, said. "For Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Angkasa Pura [the airport's operator] said they would be ready for implementation next month."
Hadi further denied that postponing the policy meant it would be quietly abandoned.
Late in 2014, the ministry issued a regulation stipulating that all ticket counters in airport terminals nationwide must be scrapped effective Feb. 15.
Apart from banning ticket counters at airports, the new order prohibits unregistered taxis from operating at airports and smoking inside airports. The regulation also requires airlines to provide lounges for their passengers.
Hadi added that with the regulation, the ministry is committed to a hard line against middlemen, locally known as calo, operating in Indonesian airports. "By ordering that all airline tickets be purchased online, we can better deter middlemen as we have seen happen in train stations. Besides, the names on the tickets will have to be identical to ID cards."
Investor Daily
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