Soekarno- Hatta airport expansion set to start in July

State-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura II (AP II) will launch the first phase of its expansion of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in July, the company’s chief says.

AP II president director Tri Sunoko said that the first phase would include the construction of a new apron and expansion of Terminal 3, which serves budget airlines.

“We have to immediately start the construction, because Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is too crowded. We expect to finish the first phase of construction next year, so it will be able to operate in early 2014,” Tri Sunoko said on the sidelines of a focus group discussion with State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Tri Sunoko said that the groundbreaking for the new apron would be held in the second week of July, marking the start of the massive expansion plan.

Based on recent data from the Transportation Ministry, the number of passengers passing through Soekarno-Hatta reached 51.1 million in 2011, more than 132 percent of its maximum capacity of 22 million passengers a year.

Tri Sunoko said that Angkasa Pura II would spend about Rp 800 billion (US$84.8 million) on the new apron, which has been designed to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft, such as the Boeing B747.

The firm was still determining the total investment that would be required for the entire expansion project, he said.

When the project is completed in 2014, Terminal 3 would be able to handle 25 million passengers a year, he said.

“We are prioritizing the development of Terminal 3 because we still have to run the airport’s major operations in both Terminal 1 and 2; we do not want to disturb the entire operations,” Tri Sunoko added.

Terminal 3, which entered service in April 2009, can accommodate a maximum of 4 million passengers a year. It is used by low-cost carriers such as Mandala Airlines, Indonesia AirAsia, and Lion Air on its Denpasar route.

According to recent data from Angkasa Pura II, Terminal 3 has been operating over capacity, handling 5.6 million passengers in 2011.

To support the central government’s Master Plan for the Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Growth (MP3EI), Angkasa Pura II intends to expand the annual passenger handling capacity of the airport to 71 million in the next few years.

The cost of the expansion program would exceed initial estimates, Tri Sunoko said. “The investment will absolutely exceed Rp 11.75 trillion. We are now recalculating.”

The expansion project is slated to include the revitalization of Terminals 1 and 2 and the development of Terminal 3, the cargo terminal and other supporting facilities.

An integrated building connecting Terminals 1, 2 and 3 has also been planned.

Runways 1 and 2 will be reconfigured by adding a taxiway and parking spaces for 174 aircraft aimed at increasing the number of aircraft processed from 52 to 62 per hour.

Runways 3 and 4 will be built to the north of the airport to further increase the number of aircraft served from 62 to 234 per hour.

Soekarno-Hatta’s renovation has affected the terminal used by haj pilgrims, leading Angkasa Pura II to build a terminal for haj pilgrims at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta.

Construction on the hajj terminal is slated to start in the third quarter and it finish in early 2013.