AIR ticketing companies in Indonesia want Bank Indonesia (BI) to postpone the implementation of the rupiah as the de facto currency of choice until the end of the year, when the airlines, GDSs and IATA systems will be fully ready.
Announced earlier this year, the Indonesian central bank BI will disallow domestic transactions conducted in any currency but the rupiah from July 1, although foreign currency transactions made before June 30 with credit payment after July 1 will be allowed.
All stages of the ticket purchasing process are currently conducted in US dollars and Indonesia is not ready to do everything in rupiah yet, said Shirley Leiwakabessy, country manager Indonesia of IATA at an ASTINDO and ASITA Jakarta Chapter members’ meeting where IATA gave a presentation on preparing for the new regulation.
One issue involves GDSs, which may not be able to display prices in rupiah because they only allow up to 11 alphanumeric characters, including the three-character currency code.
Shirley said a first-class ticket from Jakarta to Europe could cost up to Rp100 million (US$7,520) and the system cannot issue the ticket if displayed in rupiah. “To change this (in the GDS system) is not easy… They need investment, manpower and time to do it.”
“We have submitted a letter to BI asking for until the end of the year to solve this,” she added.
In the meantime, Shirley advised companies to contact airlines directly and arrange for payments in such cases.
Edward Jusuf, general manager of Golden Nusa Travel, pointed out during the meeting: “(Based on IATA’s presentation), if we only know the exact price in rupiah upon issuing the ticket, that puts corporate travel companies like us that have contracts with corporates, at the risk of losing out in terms of exchange rates.”
“Why don’t we postpone the implementation until all parties are ready? Please do not get us wrong – I prefer using the rupiah. If all parties were ready today, I wouldn’t have any objection to starting transactions in rupiah today,” he said.
Meanwhile, Fajar Setiawan, assistant director of money management, BI, said: “We are studying the request from IATA. ASITA and ASTINDO members can also submit theirs.”
