T

he new Sepinggan International Airport terminal in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, will officially open in the first quarter of 2014 to accommodate increasing passenger numbers.

Taochid Purnomo Hadi, head of the Sepinggan expansion project, said the Rp 2-trillion (US$168 million) new terminal stood on a 110,000-square-meter plot of land and had an annual capacity of 10 million passengers.

'€œBalikpapan is a trade center as well as a gateway for almost every mining and plantation company. Thus, it sees double-digit growth in passengers and air cargo traffic every year. This terminal will accommodate the demand,'€ Taochid said on Thursday.

He said the new terminal would open on a trial basis in January before officially opening in mid-February.

According to recent data of state-owned airport company PT Angkasa Pura, the number of passengers passing through Sepinggan Airport reached 6.6 million last year, up 15.7 percent from 5.7 million passengers in 2011.

The old terminal was originally designed to handle 1.7 million passengers.

The same growth was recorded in air cargo, of which 52,000 tons passed through the airport in 2012, a 15.5 percent increase from 45,000 tons the previous year.

'€œWe also expanded the apron because aircraft movement at Sepinggan has grown rapidly, with airlines increasing services here every year,'€ he said, adding that flights on domestic routes saw an average rise of 11.3 percent from 46,384 in 2008 to 71,063 last year, while international flights recorded an 8.13 percent annual increase from 1,451 in 2008 to 1,932 in 2012.

To accommodate the increase in flights, the apron has been expanded from 100,372 square meters to 140,972 square meters.

The project also included the development of 76 new check-in counters, 11 aerobridges and a five-story parking station with 2,310 spaces.

In addition, Sepinggan Airport expansion project secretary Agus Rahardjo said that 33,000 square meters of the terminal would be used for commercial purposes in a bid to help increase the operator'€™s revenue.

'€œThe area will be used by tenants such as outlets selling food and beverages, multibrand products and handicrafts. The terminal will also have a boutique mall because we want the airport to become a center for public activities,'€ Agus said.

He said the commercial area was crucial for Angkasa Pura as the company had lost its navigation assets and a chunk of revenue from airlines after the government established a new state-run company to manage national air traffic control services, the Indonesian Air Navigation Services (PPNPI), in January.

The PPNPI was established as stipulated in the 2009 Aviation Law, which authorizes the government to transfer air navigation service management from airport operators to a non-profit institution to improve the nation'€™s air traffic services and safety.

He said the old terminal would be used by chartered planes and a hotel built to increase the firm'€™s revenues as well as to provide added value to passengers.