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New runway to ease traffic at Soekarno-Hatta Int'l Airport
The largest and busiest airport in Indonesia, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, Banten, is expected to see smoother air traffic following the inauguration of its third runway, the East Connection Taxiway and a VIP building on Thursday
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span>The largest and busiest airport in Indonesia, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, Banten, is expected to see smoother air traffic following the inauguration of its third runway, the East Connection Taxiway and a VIP building on Thursday.
The new runway and taxiway are also expected to improve the airport’s safety procedures during takeoff and landing.
“The operation of the third runway and the East Connection Taxiway will increase the on-time performance of airlines,” state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura II president director Muhammad Awaluddin told reporters on Thursday.
“As of today, there is reduced passenger density in the airport’s terminals because they are distributed in terminals 1, 2 and 3,” he added.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo inaugurated the three new facilities on Thursday. The runway, which actually started operations on Dec. 20, 2019, is expected to facilitate a surge in air traffic, which will gradually increase the airport’s passenger capacity.
"Hopefully, these facilities can improve the airport’s services," Jokowi said during the inauguration ceremony.
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is the biggest and busiest airport in Indonesia, serving 60 million to 70 million passengers every year.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said a third runway was expected to increase the number of aircraft landings and takeoffs from 81 to 100 per hour.
“The third runway improves safety as it separates the takeoff and landing [areas],” he said in a statement on Friday.
The taxiway, he went on to say, would prevent airplanes from blocking each other while taxying.
The East Connection Taxiway is built to accelerate an aircraft’s movement after landing, so it can reach the passenger terminal faster. It also allows an aircraft to take off directly from the terminal.
With the new taxiway, an aircraft’s movement time from the south to the north runway and vice versa will be cut to seven minutes from more than 30 minutes before. The new taxiway is built with two lanes measuring 25 meters wide and 2 kilometers long each and can be used to accommodate twin-aisle aircraft.
Along with the new runway and taxiway, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport also opened its new VIP terminal building at the Terminal 3 area. The 6,123-square-meter VIP building is designed to welcome officials or state guests.
During the same occasion on Thursday, Jokowi also instructed the acceleration of the airport's fourth terminal as an effort to brace an increase in passenger numbers. The President expressed hope that the fourth terminal could start operations by 2022 or early 2023 at the latest.
Awaluddin said on Friday that his company would pursue the completion of Terminal 4’s detailed engineering design this year before starting construction.
"We hope to complete the design by the end of 2020,” he said. “We have a total of 102 hectares of land inside our airport for this project. So, we don’t need to clear any land.”
The development of Terminal 4 alone is projected to cost between Rp 13 trillion (US$950.28 million) and Rp 14 trillion. When completed, the terminal will have a capacity of 40 million to 45 million passengers per year as the biggest airport terminal in Indonesia.
