Pelni

Pelni's passenger ships are also a major branding feature of Pelni: large yellow funnel with red-and-white strips and Pelni logo.[11] Pelni painted its ships with white color on the upper side of ships and crimson on the lower side. It's reddish lifeboats are also easily recognised from distances.

Most of these passenger ships (Excluding KM Egon, KM Ganda Dewata & KFC Jetliner) were built by Meyer Werft, a major German shipyard well-known as luxury passenger ships builder. Due to Meyer's luxury culture, some party considered Pelni's ships 'too good' by Indonesian standard, even after designed & built as economy-class passenger ships by default. Per August 12, 2017, no Meyer-built Pelni ship is involved in sinking accident. However, these high-standard ships were not enjoyed by passengers, especially prior to 2014, because harsh treatment by passengers and the crew itself. Most problems usually came from illegal passengers.

Since 2014 onwards, some improvement have been made, especially in ticket reservation system (now booking is available online, but still limited to payment via Bank Rakyat Indonesia's ATM and Indomaret store. Credit card payment is still not possible), toilet repair, and 2-pin electric plug (for mobile devices only). Passengers can enjoy GSM & GPRS network in Pelni ships provided by telkomsel. However, passenger management is still troublesome, mainly because most of Indonesian seaport's passenger terminal (operated by Indonesia Port Corporations) is not sterile from illegal visitors.[12]

KM Dorolonda while unloading cargo & Passenger at port of Bitung

Below is a list of Pelni's Passenger Ships. All of these ships (excluding KFC Jetliner) were named after mountains in Indonesia. KM Tatamailau, however, is named after Mt. Tatamailau in East Timor. 'KM' is abbreviation of 'Kapal Mesin', meaning Motor Vessel (MV) and 'KFC' is abbreviation of 'Kapal Ferry Cepat', meaning Express Ferry Ship.

• One single bed per passenger, but shared space with others and no separator each bed.
• 2-pin electric plugs per bed (low voltage, for mobile phones only)
• Shared bathrooms & toilets with hot & cold water
• Three standard meals a day (queued)
• Hot water for drink
• Musalla
• Cafeteria
• Smoking area
• GSM and GPRS network by Telkomsel
• Clinic

KM Kelud (serving Jakarta-Batam-Tanjung Balai Karimun-Medan) is the ship with most complete facilities:

• Restaurant
• Wi-Fi (paid)
• Mini cinema
• Alfamart and Pelnimart store
• Gym
• Live music

KM Kelud also provides first- and 2nd-class service in addition to economy-class services, with double bedroom and four single-bedroom options, with television and better food menus.

However, not all of those facilities are always available. Some passengers wrote that access to some of those, such as mini-cinema and gym were locked by the crew.[13] Also, not all of these facilities are in good conditions, especially the toilets.[14] The ships are also often overcrowded by illegal passengers, especially after embarking from small ports with less security enforcement.[15]

In addition to regular passenger routes, Pelni provides tourism packages to various islands. Pelni introduces live-on-board concept, where Pelni ships will pick up passenger in hub ports (such as Semarang or Sorong), sail to destined tourist attraction, stay there as 'floating hotel' while passengers enjoying the tourism packages in nearby islands, and then return to hub port. For 2017, the tourism packages are:

• Karimunjava Islands (depart from Semarang)
• Raja Ampat Islands (from Sorong)
• Derawan Islands (from Balikpapan)
• Wakatobi National Park (from Baubau)
• Komodo National Park (from Labuan Bajo)
• Banda Neira (from Ambon)

in 23 June 2019, Pelni launched new tourism service with KLM (Kapal Layar Mesin/Motor Sail Ship) Pelita Arunika. Built by a traditional shipbuilder in Tanjung Bira, South Sulawesi and serving tourists in Labuan Bajo.

• KM Caraka Jaya Niaga III-4
• KM Caraka Jaya Niaga III-2
• KM Caraka Jaya Niaga III-32

These ships are owned/rented by Government of Indonesia and operated by Pelni:

KM Sabuk Nusantara-46, one of kapal perintis (pioneer ship) operated by Pelni, serving Sunda Kelapa-Thousand Islands (Indonesia)

Tol Laut ('Sea Tollroad') is a maritime program by President Joko Widodo to improve Indonesian logistic system through providing routine and subsidized ship sailing across Indonesia. As of December 31, 2016, Pelni operated six ships for this purpose.

Pelni operated one cattle ship, KM Camara Nusantara I, to transport cattle produced by farmers in Lesser Sunda Islands to Java.

Pioneer ships (kapal perintis) are smaller ships provided and subsidized by government to service remote islands that are commercially not profitable and too shallow for larger ship to disembark. As of December 31, 2016, Pelni operated 46 pioneer ships.