The plan is in line with an effort to attract more airlines into the country as the government is targeting 20 million foreign tourists by next year. To realize this, the airport operator will transform the airport’s existing terminals 1 and 2 into LCCTs.

AP II president director Muhammad Awaluddin confirmed the plan, saying Terminal 1 would become an LCCT for domestic flights and Terminal 2 would be an LCCT for international flights.

“ [...] We can build a new airport with an LCCT or just transform the existing terminal into an LCCT. What we are going to do at Soekarno-Hatta [International Airport] is to transform [the terminals] from non-LCCT to LCCT,” he said on Monday.

Awaluddin added that he had discussed the LCCT issue with State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno. AP II was of the view that the establishment of the LCCTs at the airport could be done in parallel with the ongoing revitalization of terminals 1 and 2.

The revitalization, which will start this year, aims to increase the passenger capacity of each terminal to around 36 million, double the current capacity.

AP II has spent more than Rp 3 trillion (US$208.7 million) on terminal development at Soekarno-Hatta from the Rp 18.8 trillion in capital expenditure (capex) this year. Awaluddin also pointed out that there had been a segmentation of the airlines at the existing terminals, with the new Terminal 3 already housing the full-service carriers, such as national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and China Airlines.

Meanwhile, Terminal 1 is housing the airlines under private low-cost carrier Lion Air Group, as well as Garuda Indonesia subsidiary Citilink. AP II would manage the configuration of the airlines to make each terminal more specific, Awaluddin said.

However, the company will first request approval from the regulator before going ahead with the plan to have two international terminals inside the airport.

It is also open to adjust fares at the LCCTs, such as landing fees.

AP II stated it was not concerned about the impact of decreasing fares on its business, as the move might serve as a component to trigger higher traffic.

Awaluddin noted that low-cost carriers made up at least 65 percent of the traffic at the airport.

The LCCT concept has become common across the world to cater for budget travelers, including the LCCT at London’s Luton Airport, Berlin’s Tegel Airport as well as a terminal at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

In the first half of this year, AP II recorded 229,120 aircraft movements at Soekarno-Hatta, a 28.9 percent increase year-on-year (yoy). As of June, the number of passengers increased by 9 percent yoy to 32.4 million.

AP II has set a target to record 1 million aircraft movements this year at its 15 airports, an increase of 24 percent from 821,000 aircraft movements last year. It has also predicted passenger traffic of 119 million this year, a 12.9 percent increase yoy.

Regarding the safety level for the increasing number of aircraft movements, AP II worked with Airports Council International to do a safety audit at Kualanamu International Airport, North Sumatra, and Minangkabau International Airport, West Sumatra, to help the company with improvements.

The Transportation Ministry’s director general for air transportation, Agus Santoso, said the government would guide the development of the supporting facilities for the LCCT to ensure that facilities such as runways fitted the requirements of the aircraft flown by the low-cost carrier.

“The level of safety is the same standard as the other [full service] airlines because this has to do with human lives,” he added.

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