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span class="inline inline-left">Local airport ground handling service provider PT Jasa Angkasa Semesta Tbk has plans to expand its business by developing and managing Mutiara Airport in Palu, Central Sulawesi.

The firm, more widely known as JAS Airport Services (JAS), is planning to take advantage of a government initiative that encourages private foreign investors to partner with local companies in large infrastructure development projects.

According to Adji Gunawan, president director and CEO of JAS, the prospect of becoming the airport'€™s cooperator is still in line with the company'€™s means.

'€œOur own number crunching shows we can try our hand in Palu. If an investor has secured the rights to manage the airport, we'€™ll offer our partnership,'€ Adji told The Jakarta Post in a media visit on Tuesday.

He said that JAS also had a branch operating in nearby Makassar, South Sulawesi, and Manado, North Sulawesi, making the bid much more attractive to realize.

Previously, the government prepared a public-private partnership (PPP) scheme, regulated by the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas), to help speed up the upgrade of air transportation infrastructure in the country.

It offered this plan to private companies and other state-owned enterprises, besides state-run airport operators Angkasa Pura I and II, giving them the opportunity to manage 10 non-commercial airports, to help reduce the government'€™s dependency on state airport operators.

Besides Mutiara Airport in Palu, the government also sought investors to develop and manage Fatmawati Soekarno Airport in Bengkulu; Hanandjoeddin Airport in Belitung; Radin Inten II Airport in Lampung; Tjilik Riwut Airport in Central Kalimantan; Juwata Airport in North Kalimantan; Komodo Airport in East Nusa Tenggara; Sultan Babullah Airport in North Maluku; Matahora Airport in Southeast Sulawesi; and Sentani Airport in Papua.

Meanwhile, JAS corporate secretary Yoyok Priyowiwoho said the firm might also be looking to diversify its business portfolio by expanding into cruise logistics and loading.

'€œWe have competency in the hospitality sector. So if, for instance, the government invests in a cruise port in Bali, we'€™ll take the opportunity to provide the 4,000-plus passengers our services. If only the [infrastructure] was available,'€ Yoyok told the Post on Tuesday.

The other possibility, Yoyok explained, was to provide services at train stations. He said that the firm currently cooperated with state-owned railway authority PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) in Medan, North Sumatra for the airport-railway system.

He also said the company might look into participating in a tender for the Rp 26-trillion ($2.18 billion) airport express train project connecting Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in East Jakarta and Indonesia'€™s main gateway of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang.

JAS CEO Adji said the firm was aiming to generate a gross revenue stream of Rp 1 trillion in 2014, but seemed pessimistic that the target would be met despite capital expenditure of Rp 65 billion.

He said the company would remain conservative in its business outlook next year with 9 percent growth, withholding any further budgeting plans for next year until the government was clear about its open sky policy ahead of the implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC).