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espite the domestic economic slowdown, the Transportation Ministry recorded a sharp increase in the number of homebound Idul Fitri travelers opting to use air transportation during the two-week holiday this year: up 8.8 percent to 3.76 million from 3.46 million in the holiday season last year.

'€œEven amid the economic slowdown, the data shows that the public'€™s purchasing power remains high,'€ Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan said during the closing ceremony of the ministry'€™s National Coordinating Center for the 2015 Idul Fitri exodus on Tuesday.

Airport operator Angkasa Pura II'€™s president director Budi Karya Sumadi said that the company recorded an 8 percent increase in passenger volume at the country'€™s main gateway, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, during the holiday season.

'€œWe also recorded a 15 to 20 percent increase in passenger volume in airports we manage in Sumatra, which is a very significant growth, thanks to better coordination with the Transportation Ministry,'€ Budi said during the press conference.

The ministry, however, recorded a slight decrease in the total number of homebound travelers using public transportation during the Idul Fitri holiday this year.

Unlike the government'€™s previous estimate that the number of exodus vacationers would reach 20 million this year, data from the ministry shows that the number of travelers reached only 17.4 million between July 10 and 24, down 1.56 percent from 17.7 million in the same period last year.

The number of homebound vacationers using public land transportation was down 10.2 percent from 5.23 million in 2014 to 4.69 million in 2015, while travelers using sea transportation decreased 4.57 percent from 910,823 to 869,176 this year.

The ministry'€™s director general for land transportation, Djoko Sasono, said that the decrease was due to the longer holiday season and also to an increase in the number of vacationers traveling with private cars.

'€œThis year'€™s Idul Fitri holiday coincided with the school holiday, making the exodus start earlier than last year and not concentrating it only between the seven days before and the seven days after Idul Fitri, which is not included in our calculations,'€ Djoko told reporters.

The ministry recorded a 4.11 percent increase in the number of private cars used during the annual exodus, from 2.27 million last year to 2.37 million this year.

'€œWe saw an increasing public interest in using private cars for the exodus this year, particularly because of the opening of the new Cipali toll road, which was seen in the easing of traffic along Pantura,'€ Djoko referring to Java'€™s northern coastal route.

In June, President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo opened the 116-kilometer Cipali toll road, which connects Cikopo in Cikampek and Palimanan in Cirebon. With the new toll road connecting the existing Jakarta-Cikampek and Palimanan-Brebes toll roads, motorists will be able to travel from Jakarta to Brebes in four hours.

Meanwhile, the number of motorcycles used during the exodus was also up by 48.8 percent from 2.52 million in 2014 to 3.75 million in 2015, the data shows.

As for railway transportation, the number of passengers increased 0.34 percent, from 3.89 million to 3,91 million between July 10 and 24.

The government also recorded a decrease in traffic accidents this year. According to the National Police, traffic accidents nationwide during the Idul Fitri exodus claimed 628 lives, down 8 percent from the figure in 2014.