As many as 10,931 '€œmudik'€ (homeward bound) travelers carried by 118 flights have arrived at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta during return traffic that started from July 30 to Aug. 2.

Ibut Astono, operating manager and head of Idul Fitri transportation monitoring center for Halim Perdanakusuma Airport, said according to his company, as many as 16 flights carrying 2,154 passengers had arrived up until Saturday evening, and it was still expecting six more to come.

'€œIt is possible that the number of passengers will continue to increase if airline companies are fully booked until today,'€ he said as quoted by Antara news agency on Sunday.

Ibut said Idul Fitri was the first time this year that the airport was serving commercial flights to Java, Sumatra and Kalimantan, as an effort taken by the state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura (AP) II to help ease congestion at the country'€™s main gateway - Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

Ibut further said that airport public transportation, such as taxis and Damri buses, was sufficient to serve the travelers.

Previously, Asnawi, field coordinator of the state-owned bus company Damri at Halim, said that a total of 20 buses had been prepared to transfer the travelers to Gambir Station in Central Jakarta, Blok M and Pasar Minggu areas in South Jakarta, Rawamangun in East Jakarta, Bogor and Bekasi in West Java and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Banten.

The Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) estimated that the number of air travelers during the annual Idul Fitri exodus would increase from 3.68 million last year to 4.1 million this year. (gda)

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