Did AirAsia's Rivals Arm-Twist Online Travel Agencies to Stop Selling Its Low Airfares?
Skift Take
Any form of industry players conspiring to protect their self-interests should be thoroughly investigated. Hopefully this unsettling episode in Indonesia will end soon and everyone can go back to booking the best deal they can get without lame invisible hands interfering with the process.
A tiff between AirAsia and Indonesia’s Traveloka has taken on a new twist. Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air have allegedly prevented the country’s two largest online travel agencies, the other being Tiket.com, from selling AirAsia low-cost flights.
AirAsia announced on March 4 it was permanently withdrawing sales of its flights from Traveloka, covering all flight routes across its network, following the unexplained disappearance of AirAsia Indonesia’s flights from Traveloka for the second time in two weeks. It charged Traveloka with “a clear display of preferential treatment and an act of favoritism.”
“We observed through social media messages how customers who enquired about the unavailability of AirAsia flights were recommended by Traveloka to book with other airlines instead,” AirAsia Indonesia President Director Dendy Kurniawan said at the time.
Traveloka said it was due to “system maintenance.” When asked by Skift at the time why only AirAsia flights were affected by the system maintenance, a Traveloka’s spokesperson said: “We can’t comment further on this because currently we are still trying to reach them [AirAsia] to create a discussion and hope that this will lead to the best solutions for all of us.”
A meeting ensued last week in Jakarta between Traveloka and AirAsia, Traveloka’s director of public relations, Sufintri Rahayu, confirmed with Skift Wednesday. But she declined to comment on the discussions.
AirAsia also held a separate meeting w
