The Transportation Ministry will soon issue guidelines on planning, building and operating airports, to set management standards, now private firms and local administrations can run them as well as SOEs
The ministry’s director of airports Bambang Tjahjono said the guidelines would be effective from January 2010, to follow-up the newly-endorsed 2009 Aviation Law allowing private firms and local administrations to build and operate airports.
Most major airports are operated by state-owned airport management PT Angkasa Pura I and PT Angkasa Pura II, while small airports are managed by the ministry’s units, local government and the Air Force.
“These guidelines will give exact benchmarks about airport development planning as well as criteria for local administrations that plan to construct new airports in their territories,” Bambang told The Jakarta Post recently.
He criticized regional administrations for sometimes proposing airports without good planning.
“Sometimes regional leaders, governors and regents, are too ambitious [wanting] to build airports but lack a market study. As a result, some new airports are deserted or even abandoned,” Bambang said.
An aviation observer who is also a former pilot for flag carrier Garuda Indonesia, Rendy Sasmita Adjiwibowo, welcomed the government plan.
“In line with the plan to establish an integrated transportation system announced by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, it is important to accompany every new airport plan with a feasibility study about the market potential,” he told the Post.
The government has approved plans to develop 31 new airports, in addition to 196 existing ones nationwide, excluding those belonging to private parties and the military.
Of the new airports, only the West Java International Airport in Majalengka is planned as a big airport. “We hope the local administrations can relate to other regions which failed to establish well-operated airports due to the lack of comprehensive studies,” Bambang said.
He cited the abandoned Samarinda Baru Airport project in East Kalimantan that cost Rp 2.4 trillion, and the deserted Notohadinegoro Airport in Jember, East Java, as examples.
“[Samarinda administration] suddenly stopped their airport construction due to lack of money. And they are now asking us [central government] to fund it,” Tjahjono said.
Rendy criticized the planned Majalengka and Jember airports as being lavish “[Majalengka] is too close to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.”.
Rendy added Jember already had well-connected modes of transportation like buses and trains, so constructing an airport there became a waste of money. (bbs)
