T

he government is bracing for the movement of around 26 million homeward-bound travelers in the lead up to Idul Fitri, which is expected to fall in the first week of July.

The Transportation Ministry, currently doing preparatory checks, said the travelers would use either private cars or public transportation including buses, railways, planes and boats.

“Since June 1, we have had several officials conducting inspections at airports, train stations, bus terminals and ports to ensure all of transportation systems are ready for the Idul Fitri exodus,” the ministry’s special public information officer Hadi Mustofa Djuraid told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview.

A number of problems and incidents occurred within the transportation sector during last year’s holiday season, when only 20 million travelers journeyed home.

Among the most notorious incidents was a fatal accident involving a old rusty bus, which exhibited the same lack of roadworthiness as many public land transportation vehicles. Another problem last year was lax adherence to flight schedules at major airports, underlined by a backup of passengers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten, with Lion Air flights running five hours late on the first day of Idul Fitri.

“We expect that delayed departures will only occur because of weather, not technical matters [...]. We also expect that our public transportation vehicles will accommodate everyone wanting to travel during the peak season of Idul Fitri,” Hadi said.

To accommodate the larger number of travelers during the exodus, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia has prepared 111 extra flights to destinations including Yogyakarta; Padang, West Sumatra; Semarang, Central Java; Surabaya, East Java; Medan, North Sumatra; Denpasar, Bali; Balikpapan, East Kalimantan; Bangkok; Singapore; and Kuala Lumpur.

Garuda Indonesia vice president of corporate communications Benny S. Butarbutar said to the Post, “We haven’t seen an increasing number of passengers yet, but it usually happens two weeks before Idul Fitri”.

The largest low-cost airline in Indonesia, Lion Air, has announced that it has prepared extra flights also, but does not yet have approval to run them from the ministry because it was penalized for flight delays in May.

Meanwhile, state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) has added 14 extra trips to Yogyakarta, Central Java and East Java as it estimates up to 1.59 million people will travel by train during the Idul Fitri holiday. This number is up slightly from 1.51 million last year.

However, all seats on all available trains have been booked.

KAI regional operations spokesman Bambang S. Prayitno said that to cope with the increasing number of passengers, KAI would also improve its security and monitor railway routes because of expected rainfall.

In contrast to PT KAI, state-owned ship operator PT Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia (Pelni) still has tickets for those who want to journey home by sea for the holidays.

Pelni spokesperson Akhmad Sujadi said there were 50 to 85 berths left. He added that the number of holiday season passengers had already increased to 794,777 from 779,194 last year.

Akhmad cited several routes — Batam to Medan, North Sumatra; Kumai, Central Kalimantan to Surabaya; and Kumai to Semarang — that were predicted to see the most passengers.

“As a solution to that, ships serving those destinations will not stay long in port,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Pulo Gebang bus terminal in East Jakarta is expected to function as Jakarta’s main hub during Idul Fitri.

Pulo Gebang bus terminal head of operations Noviesa F. Pinem told the Post that 798 buses were ready to transport passengers to cities in Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java and East Nusa Tenggara.

However, anyone still wanting to buy bus tickets at the terminal for the Idul Firti period will be disappointed. Ticket counters will not open until next week.

“Passengers can buy tickets now if the bus operator [for their route] has an online ticketing system,” Noviesa said. (wnd)