Airport duty officer Yusuf Indra said that as of 8 a.m. at least 63 flights were delayed but that most flights would be delayed by no more than 30 minutes.

"The situation returned to normal gradually after 8 a.m.," Yusuf said as quoted by kompas.com.

However, The Jakarta Post found long lines of passengers well after 9 a.m.

Passengers complained that they were told wait in long lines pending resumption of normal activities at the airport.

"We have to stand in long line and face flight delays," said Lion Air passenger Syamsudin.

Syamsudin was to depart for Pontianak, West Kalimantan, at 6 a.m. but was still waiting for a flight at Terminal 1A as of 9 a.m. due to delays.

Another passenger, Syahrial, said he was to fly to Padang, West Sumatra, at 5 a.m. but the blackout had forced him to wait.

"There is no explanation on how long we have to wait for the flight," Syahrial said.

"I think airport is a vital operation that should face no power disturbances at all, but this has frequently occurred," he said.

Friday's blackout was the third in a string of outages.

The airport management said earlier that the electricity went off last month due to a reported problem at the Muara Karang power plant in North Jakarta.

On Aug. 3, blackouts affected many parts in Greater Jakarta, including the airport, when a crane operator allegedly broke a power cable.

Airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II spokesman Andang Santoso said that state-owned power company PLN had not offered an official explanation to the airport management on the outage.

He said the electricity went off at 4:02 a.m. and the airport's backup power generator was automatically switched on.

"The power blackout only lasted for 1.7 seconds but the incident left numerous problems that affected all vital activities the airport," he said.

It took more than two hours to manually reset all of the airport's computers and other devices such as checkpoint scanners, air traffic control equipment and the airport's radar system, Andan said.

"With inadequate power supply from the generator we have, officers at the terminals had to work manually. It took longer than normal. Long queues at Terminals 1A and 1B, where passenger distribution is very high, were inevitable," he said.

The airport's backup generator can only produce 7,200 kilovolt-amperes (kVA) of electricity while the total needs reach 30,000 kVA.

"We can only use electricity from the generator to supply vital needs, which are priority at the airport. Other facilities such ATMs and toilets were not functioning," he said, adding that the power was restored to the airport at 6 a.m.

Purnomo Willy, PLN's director for Tangerang and Jakarta, said that there was disruption in the power supply to the airport.

"There is nothing wrong with electricity supply to the airport," he said.

Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi urged airport authorities to prevent a repeat of similar outages in the future.

"There should be no more *outages*," Freddy said at a Cabinet meeting in Bogor, West Java as quoted by vivanews.com.

Freddy said that the repeated blackouts that have paralyzed the airport would tarnish the country's image in international forum.

"The airport is one of the veins *of our economy*, thanks to the hundreds of flights it handles everyday," he said.

The airport serves 16 airlines and handles more than 900 flights every day.

Friday's blackout delayed 22 Garuda Indonesia flights, 10 Sriwijaya Air flights, 10 Lion Air flights, nine Batavia Air, four Air Asia flights, two Citilink flights and one flight each for Mandala Express, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Star Air and Royal Brunei Airlines, according to reports.

PLN's president director Dahlan Iskan blamed the outage on the airport.

"Nothing went wrong with PLN's power supply. The outage was the result of the airport's electricity grid," he said.

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