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Air travel slides for holiday season as land transportation improves
Air travel during the end-of-year holiday season is expected to decline as holidaymakers opt for land-based transportation as a result of new toll roads, more scheduled train services and higher airfares, according to the Transportation Ministry
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span>Air travel during the end-of-year holiday season is expected to decline as holidaymakers opt for land-based transportation as a result of new toll roads, more scheduled train services and higher airfares, according to the Transportation Ministry.
“Air travel already declined during last year’s [Christmas exodus]. This year, the number of journeys is predicted to shrink by around 8 percent. That’s because 70 percent of holidaymakers travel on Java Island, and the transportation infrastructure is improving there. Maybe people have shifted their preference from air to land-based transportation,” said the ministry’s air transportation director general, Polana B. Pramesti, during a public discussion on Monday.
“Nationally, the seat capacity for the Christmas holidays between Dec. 14 and Jan. 6, 2020, is around 8.9 million seats for both domestic and international flights on 494 routes. We predict that the number of passengers will be around 5.3 million, so there is still enough capacity,” she said.
The ministry’s research and development director general, Sugihardjo, predicted that only 24 percent of holidaymakers would choose to fly.
Despite the shrinking number of air travelers, the ministry has received 222 requests for extra flights for the upcoming holiday season.
According to the ministry’s survey, around 60 percent of holidaymakers will use land-based transportation. Most of the land transportation will be by private vehicle (48 percent), followed by buses (8 percent), rented cars (2 percent) and motorcycles (2 percent).
“The traffic is expected to peak on Friday, Dec. 20, except for those who use buses, who will face peak traffic on Dec. 21. There’s also a second peak on Dec. 27 for those who travel to celebrate New Year’s Eve. The return traffic is predicted to peak on Jan. 1 and 2, while for air traffic it is predicted to peak on Jan. 5,” he said.
The ministry has also estimated the total number of people who will use public transportation during the upcoming holiday season at around 16.4 million people, a 0.18 percent decrease from the 2018 holiday season.
The ministry expects the number of bus passengers during the end-of-year exodus to reach 1.75 million, a 3.55 percent increase from the previous 1.69 passengers.
“We have prepared a total of 50,000 buses and monitored bus terminal operations in 12 provinces to anticipate the rising number of passengers,” the ministry’s land transportation secretary, Cucu Mulyana, said.
He said a prohibition on freight truck operations would also be imposed on Dec. 21 and Dec. 25 for 24 hours, and from Dec. 31 until Jan. 1 late at night on major toll roads across and near Jakarta.
Trucks that carry gasoline, livestock, bottled water, fertilizers, cash, postal services, basic food and export and import goods are exempted from the prohibition.
To ensure the safety of road users, Budi said the directorate had been conducting safety inspections, known as ramp checks, on inter-city buses.
“We have inspected 10,161 buses since Nov. 20, with 3,948 buses declared unfit for travel. That does not mean the buses cannot be used at all for the upcoming holiday season, but there are things that need to be repaired or improved [before they are allowed on the roads],” he said.
The ministry also urged road users to take rests and avoid using motorcycles for long road trips.
“Make sure to take a rest for half an hour every four hours of driving, and don’t drive for more than eight hours a day,” said Sugihardjo.
Meanwhile, the ministry’s train service director general, Zulfikri, said the ministry would also conduct safety inspections given the increased rainfall and the threat of landslides on railways.
“We will continue to inspect several landslide-prone areas that are passed by railroad tracks, so we hope there will be no problem, especially during the end-of-year peak season,” he said.
Zulfikri further said that there would be additional train services, especially on long-distance routes.
“We have almost 1,200 kilometers of additional rail track, which means there will be additional train departures. There will be 76 new departures, mostly on long-distance routes,” he said.
Besides additional departures, new routes have been established including a direct route between Jakarta and Jombang in East Java.
“In North Sumatra, the Kualanamu Airport train has been connected to the Medan railway system up to Medan Station,” Zulfikri added.
The ministry expects a total of 5.91 million holidaymakers to use the train service, a 4 percent increase from the previous year’s 5.68 million.
Zulfikri told The Jakarta Post that on average around 40 percent of train tickets had been sold for the upcoming holidays with a possibility of tickets already being sold out on certain routes and departure times. (mpr)
