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New public corporation to manage RI air traffic control
Happy landings: An airline is about to touch down at the Polonia Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, in thick haze
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span class="inline inline-left">Happy landings: An airline is about to touch down at the Polonia Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, in thick haze. The government is set to establish a new company to manage air traffic control in the country. JP/NurhayatiA new state-owned company to manage national air traffic control services will be established in the first quarter of 2012, a senior official said in Jakarta on Tuesday.
The Transportation Ministry air transportation director general Herry Bhakti Gumay said that the draft of the government regulation on the establishment of the company would be ready this month.
“We have recently met and discussed the final part of the regulation with the Law and Human Rights Ministry and it will be finished this month,” Herry said.
According to the 2009 Aviation Law, the government must transfer air navigation service management from airport operators to a non-profit institution in order to improve the country’s air traffic services (ATS), he said.
Currently, some 200 airports nationwide are controlled by special divisions of state-owned operators Angkasa Pura I (AP I), Angkasa Pura II (AP II), and the Transportation Ministry through its technical operation units (UPT). Those three special divisions are to be merged into the new company
“We will allow for a one year transition period because there will be asset transfers from Angkasa Pura,” he said.
There would be additional regulations covering the transfer of assets and personnel.
In a separate interview, both AP I and AP II said that they were ready to let their ATS businesses go as it was stipulated in the Aviation Law.
“We will lose some 30 percent of our revenue but it does not matter because our costs are also decreasing,” Tommy Sutomo, the president director of AP I told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of a signing ceremony between the ministry and AP I to improve the quality of air traffic controllers (ATC) in the Angkasa Pura Excellence Center.
According to Merpin Butar Butar, the AP I spokesman, the company booked Rp 2.21 trillion (US$290.89) in revenue last year, a 22 percent increase from Rp 1.81 trillion in 2010.
Tommy said that AP I would transfer its 370 ATC personnel to the new company. At present, AP I currently manages 13 airports such as Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali, Sepinggan Airport in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, and Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi.
Ferry Utamayasa, the AP II spokesman was in agreement with Tommy on the issue of the new corporation.
“The government has deliberated this issue carefully and come up with the best solution. We may lose some part of our revenue but we will be more focused on airport infrastructure,” Ferry told the Post.
AP II declined to comment on last year’s revenue, however, he said that the company booked Rp 3.02 trillion in revenue in 2010 while the figure was Rp 2.74 trillion in 2009.
AP II manages 12 airports across the archipelago including Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin in Palembang, Polonia in Medan, Hussein Sastranegara Airport in Bandung, and Supadio Airport in Pontianak. (nfo)
