Travellers searching for AirAsia Indonesia’s flights from February 14-17 on online travel agency (OTA) Traveloka site could not find any entries.
The Indonesian OTA had then, in response to customers’ queries, cited the 13-hour system downtime as the reason for AirAsia flights disappearing from its site as the period coincided with the airline network-wide system upgrade on February 16.
But on March 2 AirAsia Indonesia’s flights disappeared from the OTA’s platform for a second time without clarification, and this was days after the successful system upgrade by the airline group.
The second unexplained disappearance for the past two weeks led the low cost carrier to permanently withdraw sales of its flight routes across the AirAsia network from the OTA.
“The omission of our flights has certainly hurt cooperation between AirAsia and Traveloka,” said AirAsia Indonesia president director Dendy Kurniawan in a statement issued from Jakarta.
Dendy Kurniawan: Omission of flights hurt cooperation between AirAsia and Traveloka. (Image credit: AirAsia)
“Traveloka has not acted in good faith. They have refused to provide an official explanation despite our repeated attempts to seek their clarification.”
Dendy added that the OTA’s exclusion of several AirAsia Indonesia flights was “a clear display of preferential treatment and an act of favouritism.”
Through social media messages the airline had observed that customers enquiring about the unavailability of AirAsia flights were recommended by Traveloka to book with other airlines instead.
The AirAsia group, in solidarity, withdraws sales of all of its flights from Traveloka immediately, Dendy stated.
“Competition should be free and fair to ensure consumers benefit from the best deals. We should not let monopolies kill competition at the expense of the travelling public.”
The airline advised travellers who wish to purchase flights to book directly from the airasia.com website or its mobile app.
Traveloka “regrets” the decision by its airline partner AirAsia to withdraw sales of all its routes on it platform, said the OTA spokesperson Sufintri Rahayu in a statement.
“As South-east Asia’s biggest travel and lifestyle technology company, we highly take priority in sustainable cooperations with all stakeholders, including business partners.
Meanwhile, Traveloka hopes to engage with AirAsia to find a solution.
• Featured image: AirAsia
