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Aviation fuel price increases always make frightening headlines. Yet, fuel contributes 30–40% of airline operating costs. When prices rise by 20%, ticket prices are pushed up, passengers flee to other modes, and national connectivity is threatened. However, simply blaming Pertamina is not a solution. The question is: have we stopped burning aviation fuel for unnecessary expenses? Data shows that 15–20% of fuel is wasted on unnecessary taxiing, holding, and vectoring. This article maps out strategies, implementations, and solutions to keep air transportation the most efficient option, even when aviation fuel is expensive.
Dynamic bundling, not a price war.
Airlines need to embrace the concept of unbundling and re-bundling. When aviation fuel prices rise, airlines must be transparent about fuel surcharges by directly compensating with value: free baggage, seat selection, and rescheduling. Total revenue per passenger will increase, but passengers will feel like they’re getting more.
Selling time & productivity.
Transparent calculations: 1.5-hour CGK–SUB flight = Rp1 million. 10-hour car ride + toll + hotel = Rp1.5 million + 1 lost workday. Even if aviation fuel (AVTUR) increases by 20%, air travel remains cheaper in terms of total travel costs. This is the narrative the industry must collectively promote.
Cross-subsidies & trimming.
Focus on maintaining public service routes CGK–DPS and CGK–UPG with cross-subsidies from busy routes. Boldly cut routes with load factors below 60% temporarily. It’s better to fly less efficiently than more and lose money.
Implementation – efficiency is the cheapest AVTUR.
On the ground: the war against taxi time. Comparative data at busy and congested airports shows that CGK averages a taxi time of 12 minutes versus Changi’s 2 minutes = Rp850 million per day lost. Solution: A-CDM for timely engine start, single engine taxi as SOP, electric towing to the holding point. New KPI for API in-journey average additional taxi time < 5 minutes.
In the air: eliminate wasted waiting & briefing time. Data: 10 minutes waiting for a B737 = 300 kg of aviation fuel = IDR 5 million. Solution: AMAN/DMAN for speed control from 200 NM, CDA/RNP-AR for engine idle reduction, and push requests directly from pilots to ATC. AirNav’s new KPI: total airport wait time published monthly.
In the system: hedging & consortium. Small airlines cannot hedge on their own. Solution: aviation hedging consortium facilitated by INACA + Pertamina. Purchase contracts 6 months in advance when prices are low. Model implemented by AirAsia Group.
Collaborative solutions – check ourselves.
Airlines cannot solve the problem of expensive aviation fuel alone. Seamless collaboration is needed.
1. What can be done (proposed) to the regulator/Ministry of Transportation: adopt a monthly fuel board. AirNav is required to publish data on additional taxi time, total wait time, and estimated fuel burn. If you can measure it, you can manage it. Provide incentives: airports that reduce their fuel consumption by 20% will receive a discount on their navigation fee.
2. What can be done (suggestions) for AirNav Indonesia: shift KPIs from safety and delay to efficiency. Hold joint pilot-ATC training so that ATC can experience the impact of 20 NM vector guidance from the cockpit.
3. What can be done (suggestions) for the industry: joint campaign “Hassle-Free Travel = Green Travel.” From AVSEC, airports, ATC, to airlines. Because 1 minute of delay at security = 1 minute of waiting in the air = aviation fuel burned.
The increase in aviation fuel is an external factor. But aviation fuel waste is an internal factor that we can currently control. Competitiveness does not mean being the cheapest, but rather providing the best value for customers’ time and money. It’s time for the industry to stop looking outward and start examining itself, from the apron to the airspace. Because the cheapest aviation fuel is the one that doesn’t burn.
The author chose the title “Avtur Prices Rise, Not Doomsday” to convey a collaborative roadmap to remain competitive in air transportation. The author is an aviation practitioner and former ATC.
The rise in aviation fuel prices is once again challenging the national aviation industry. Contributing 30–40% of total operational costs, every 10% increase in aviation fuel prices has the potential to drive ticket prices up by 3–4%. With public purchasing power not yet fully recovered and competition from land transportation and high-speed rail, concerns that passengers will switch modes of transportation are well-founded.
However, responding to aviation fuel price hikes by simply raising ticket prices is a reactive and risky strategy. History shows that airlines that simply pass on the cost burden to passengers without innovation end up losing market share.
The question is no longer “How much will aviation fuel cost tomorrow?” but rather “Have we stopped burning aviation fuel unnecessarily today?”
Data from IATA and ICAO is quite clear: 15–20% of fuel consumption on a single flight is wasted on the ground and in the terminal airspace, not during the efficient cruise phase. This means that before blaming external factors, the industry needs to check itself. This article offers three pillars for maintaining air transportation’s competitiveness: value strategy, efficiency implementation, and collaborative solutions.
Shifting the narrative from “ticket price” to “time value.”
When aviation fuel price increases, price wars are a shortcut to mutual loss. A more sustainable strategy is to manage perceptions and create new value for customers.
First, transparency and dynamic bundling. Fuel surcharge policies are inevitable, but they must be communicated openly. Simultaneously, airlines need to offer smart bundling. A fare increase of IDR 150,000 would be more acceptable if it were accompanied by free 25 kg of baggage, free seat selection, and one-time rescheduling flexibility. Passengers aren’t just buying a seat; they’re buying certainty and comfort.
Second, the total cost of travel campaign. The industry must unite to educate the public that the most expensive parameter in travel isn’t the ticket price, but rather time and opportunity cost. A flight from Jakarta to Surabaya takes 1.5 hours and costs IDR 1,200,000. By private car, the travel time is at least 10 hours, with tolls and fuel costs amounting to IDR 1,000,000, plus the loss of a productive day, which, if converted, could be worth IDR 2,000,000 for a professional. Even if airfares increase 20% due to aviation fuel (avtur), air travel remains the most rational choice. This narrative must be a key message for all stakeholders.
Third, route rationalization and cross-subsidies. In times of cost pressure, airlines must be bold enough to cut routes with load factors consistently below 60%. Resources should be focused on maintaining frequency and affordability on public service obligation routes, such as Jakarta–Denpasar or Jakarta–Makassar. Losses on social routes can be cross-subsidized from profitable business routes. It’s better to fly fewer flights with maintained profitability than to fly more flights at a loss.
Efficiency is the cheapest source of aviation fuel.
Aviation fuel that isn’t burned is the cheapest. The greatest potential savings lie in areas traditionally considered a given: the apron and terminal airspace.
Improving taxi time efficiency: the average taxi time at Soekarno-Hatta Airport is still around 12 minutes. In comparison, Singapore’s Changi Airport has managed to reduce it to 2 minutes. A 10-minute difference for a Boeing 737 is equivalent to 120 liters of aviation fuel, or approximately IDR 2 million. Assuming 1,000 movements per day, the potential waste reaches IDR 2 billion per day, or IDR 730 billion per year, from just one airport.
The implementation is clear: airport collaborative decision making (A-CDM). This real-time data-sharing system between airlines, ground handling, and AirNav ensures that aircraft engines are only started when the calculated takeoff time (CTOT) is certain. This eliminates long queues in taxi lanes with engines running. The single engine taxi procedure should also be a mandatory SOP for all narrow-body aircraft. Airport managers need to be given a new KPI: average additional taxi time, with a target of under 5 minutes.
Furthermore, eliminate unnecessary detentions and briefings. The approach and landing phase is the second largest contributor to waste. A 10-minute low-altitude holding pattern consumes approximately 300 kg of aviation fuel, equivalent to Rp5 million for a Boeing 737. The causes are classic: suboptimal arrival sequences and briefing procedures that extend the flight distance.
The solution is both technical and procedural. Arrival manager (AMAN) and departure manager (DMAN) are ATC systems that regulate aircraft speed starting 200 NM before the airport. Rather than flying at normal speed and then holding over the airport, it is more efficient to slow down remotely. The continuous descent approach (CDA) and the RNP-AR procedure allow aircraft to descend directly from cruise to final approach with idling engines without a gradual descent that wastes fuel. This requires joint training between pilots and air traffic controllers. Cockpit culture must also change: pilots are encouraged to proactively request fuel savings directly from ATC, when possible, during quiet traffic conditions [waypoint].
With hedging through a consortium. For small and medium-sized airlines, hedging fuel independently is often difficult due to volume and expertise. INACA, together with Pertamina, can facilitate the Avtur hedging consortium, where several airlines join forces to purchase aviation fuel contracts 6–12 months in advance when prices are predicted to be low. This model has been successfully implemented by several airline groups in ASEAN.
Time for everyone to check themselves.
Rising aviation fuel prices are an industry issue, not just an airline issue. The solution must be collaborative. The concept of seamless travel should not stop at security checks. It must extend to seamless operations on the apron and in the airspace.
This is a suggestion for regulators and the Ministry of Transportation: reactivate and implement the monthly fuel board. We can’t manage what we don’t measure. AirNav Indonesia should be required to publish a monthly report containing, at a minimum: average additional taxi time per airport, total holding time per airport, and estimated fuel burned due to these two factors. This report serves as a collective “report card.” Provide incentives: airports that successfully reduce additional taxi time by 20% in a quarter are eligible for a discount on air navigation charges. This creates data-driven positive pressure.
Meanwhile, a suggestion for AirNav Indonesia: revise the KPI to safety, delay, and efficiency. AirNav’s KPIs currently focus on safety and punctuality. It’s time to add one more metric: efficiency. Properly organize (activate—sit in the cockpit) familiarization flights and regularly assign reports, where the controller sits in the cockpit jumpseat and directly experiences the impact of instructions (mandatory once a year). Extend downwind 20 NM on fuel consumption. Operational empathy will change the way things work.
There are 4 ATC roles that must be performed. ATC’s role is not only to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, but also to regulate the arrival rhythm so that aircraft engines are turned off as long as possible on the ground and idle as long as possible in the air.
1. Gate hold procedure + A-CDM: ATC should not grant pushback clearance if the calculated takeoff time (CTOT) is still far away. Hold the aircraft at the gate with the engines off. Start the engines only 5 minutes before taxiing. This saves 80% on taxi fuel. Key phraseology (phrase): PK-XXX, expect startup in 10 minutes, CTOT 09:20.
2. Taxi routing optimizer: ATC assigns the shortest taxi route. Don’t detour for reasons that “usually go that way.” At CGK, the difference in taxi routes can be 3 minutes = Rp600,000.
3. Green taxi priority: give taxi priority to aircraft using single engine taxi. Don’t ask them to give way to aircraft using two engines.
4. New KPI for ATC on the ground: average additional taxi-out time < 3 minutes.
The ATC’s job is to orchestrate the arrival of the aircraft, not to park the aircraft in the sky.
And what can be done as a suggestion for the industry: a seamless journey = green journey campaign. A 10-minute delay at security check due to long queues can cause passengers to be late to the gate, the aircraft to wait, the CTOT slot to be missed, and ultimately end up being held in the air. This means that inefficiencies on the ground burn aviation fuel in the air. All stakeholders, from API in journey, airlines, to immigration, must see themselves as one link in the chain of efficiency.
Control: from reactive to proactive. The aviation industry has no control over global oil prices. However, we do have full control over how many liters of aviation fuel we waste each day.
Being competitive in an era of expensive aviation fuel doesn’t mean being the cheapest, but rather providing the most value for customers’ time, money, and trust.
Instead of shifting the entire burden to passengers, let’s shift our focus inward. Let’s improve taxi times, eliminate unnecessary holding times, and unify data. Ultimately, the cheapest aviation fuel is the one we never burn. It’s time we stop looking outward and start checking ourselves together.
Hopefully, aviation fuel isn’t leading to the apocalypse of air transportation.
Notes from:
- The data of IDR 850 million/day and 15–20% waste can be adjusted to the latest official sources from INACA/Ministry of Transportation.
- Technical terms such as A-CDM, CDA, RNP-AR.
- Workshops APENINDO (Indonesia Aviation Experts) Association.
