Indonesia’s Minister for Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi issued on April 15 a target for Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport to increase handling capacity from the current 63 million passengers annually to 100 million yearly by 2025.
The IDR2.6 trillion (US$189 million) infrastructure upgrades would see an increase in the takeoff and landing frequency at the airport from the current 81 movements to 114 per hour, Sumadi said, which would be facilitated by a new runway and an accompanying taxiway.
State-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II (AP II) is in the process of constructing the first phase of the east cross taxiway (ECT) to connect the existing north and south runways to increase airplane mobility and thereby boost movements to 86 per hour.
“The ECT will be complete in April 2019. We’ll then verify it and it will be operational by June 2019,” said Muhammad Awaluddin, president director of AP II.
Awaluddin confirmed that work on the taxiway began in December 2017 and is now 10% completed.
Meanwhile, he expects the planned new runway to enter operation in July 2019. The third runway will be 3,000 meters by 60 meters and will be able to accommodate large-fuselage aircraft such as the Boeing 777.
It will be constructed on 216 hectares of land, of which AP II has acquired 115 hectares. The acquisition of the remaining 101 hectares is expected to be completed in September 2018.
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, located in Benda, Tangerang, some 20 kilometers northwest of central Jakarta, is the busiest and largest airport in Indonesia, as well as one of the busiest airports in world.
Photo: Gunawan Kartapranata
