Air Ticket Scalpers Bypass Security in Indonesia

Jakarta Globe, Straits Times Indonesia | February 06, 2011     

Ticket touts are making use of security loopholes at Indonesia's airports to sell tickets on domestic flights at inflated prices, as they prey on travellers desperate for a ticket during busy periods.

Lax security at Indonesian airports allow domestic travelers
to fly using tickets under other people's names purchased
 from scalpers. (SP Photo)  

While the Indonesian government is boosting security in airline travel with new biometric passports and electronic identity cards, one major gap remains.

Travelers — whether local or foreign — who fly within Indonesia are required to produce formal identification before they board their flights, but this rule is often not closely enforced.

This has allowed ticket cartels to spring up at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport — where 44 million domestic passengers passed through last year — hawking domestic air tickets registered under random names.

Analysts say the security loophole could allow all sorts of criminals, including terror suspects on the run, to move around the country.

The Sunday Times spoke to four ticket touts at the airport's domestic terminal who explained the process, though they did not want to be named.

It starts with travel agents making advance block bookings of seats on various airlines in busy travel periods, such as long weekends or festive holidays. The reservations are made under fake names — something that cannot be done with international flights, as this requires passport numbers to be given.

Armed with the tickets, touts then linger near the ticket counters on the day of the flight, looking out for passengers who are turned away because flights are full or the tickets cost too much to buy on the spot.

"Agents know that domestic flights during holidays can go for as much as Rp 5 million ($555) one way," said a licensed tour agent based in central Jakarta. "So they'll block seats early, buy them for as little as Rp 200,000, and sell them off for Rp 1 million."

Sometimes, he said, the touts even work in cahoots with airline ticketing staff, who sell off the tickets of passengers who do not arrive early enough to check in. Check-in counters on domestic flights usually close 20 minutes before take-off.

All this is possible because security checks on domestic flights are lax, he added, and security staff rarely hassle the touts — or are allegedly bribed to turn a blind eye.

It was common, said the travel agent, for licensed travel agents to check in their clients without having to produce any form of identification. "The airlines don't care who flies as the ticket is already paid for," he claimed.

Travelers' identities are checked more thoroughly on international flights, but even so, rogue tax official Gayus Tambunan recently managed to visit a few Asian countries on a fake passport while supposedly in police custody.

Transport Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan admitted that the lax identification checks were an "administrative problem," but maintained that the authorities took safety seriously and passengers were screened thoroughly before they boarded their flights.

Indonesia has in recent years tightened security as part of efforts to clamp down on terrorism. Last month, the government launched its first biometric passports, which it hopes will help prevent the use of forged ones.

It has also started a registration process to give Indonesians a single identity number — making for better tracking — starting with Jakarta residents, though this will take a while to cover the whole country.

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