Garuda monitoring oil price closely

JAKARTA. The national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is closely monitoring the price of oil as it has a big impact on its operational costs as well as ticket prices, a senior official said in Jakarta on Wednesday.

"We are monitoring the oil price closely because if the price increases, our operational cost would increase by 30 to 40 percent," the airline vice president communication manager Pujobroto said on the sidelines of the Manufacturing Hope for State Owned Enterprises (SOE) seminar.

If the price of oil kept increasing, he said that fuel surcharges would be charged to international route passengers.

As a result, passengers would have to spend more money to buy tickets.

"The charge will be adjusted by the hours of the flight and the policy in the countries we fly to," he said.

Garuda currently flies to 18 international destinations such as Sydney, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Tokyo, Dubai and Amsterdam.

For domestic flights, he said that Garuda would charge 100 percent of the ceiling price regulated by the government.

As a full service player, the airline charged passengers 90 percent of the ceiling price, he said. (The Jakarta Post)