Indonesian airlines is said to serve 21 million passengers fewer than they did in 2018. (Photo: en.tempo.co)

Last year, the country’s aviation sector served some 111 million passengers.

Nuryakin said the sector has lost about 1.8 million passengers each month fromthe outset of 2019.

Statistics from the Indonesian Ministry of Transportation’s Directorate ofCivil Aviation showed that Indonesian airlines transported 21.87 millionpassengers in Q1 of 2017, 24.2 million passengers the same time in 2018, whilethe number of air passengers in the first quarter of 2019 was only 18.7million, much lower than the target of 26.6 million.

He attributed the decline in the number of passengers during January-March tothe fact that Airline Garuda Indonesia stopped selling extra air fares andseveral airlines like Lion Air and Wings Air increase ticket prices.

In fact, Indonesian airlines witnessed a fall in both air passengers and airfreight. Occupancy on domestic flights also slid, he said./.VNA