Airport operator to open budget terminal

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Domestic terminals at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, west of Jakarta, may soon be able to share the burden of ever-increasing passengers, with a new terminal to be built especially for low-cost carriers.

Airport administrator PT Angkasa Pura II plans to renovate its haj terminal this year into a budget-airlines terminal, said the company's public relations manager, M. Wasfan, on Wednesday.

"We are developing the blueprint and will either make the existing building two floors, or expand it in order to separate haj pilgrims from domestic passengers," he said. "Hopefully, the project will be completed by the end of this year."

Wasfan said the existing haj terminal would not be altered much as the idea was to provide less costly services.

"To cut costs, we will try to lessen the variety of services but maintain the quality as our intention is to provide affordable services for low-cost carriers," he added.

An airline industry source, however, said the airport operator should prioritize quality service rather than cost cutting through downgrading its buildings.

Wasfan said the plan to open a new domestic terminal had been prompted by the increasing number of passengers, particularly in terminal F, now occupied by Garuda Indonesia and Lion Air.

"Our terminals are now handling more than their capacity of 18 million passengers per year," he said, claiming that the airport had recorded 24 million passengers last year, far higher than the figure of 11 million reported by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

"We hope the new terminal will be able to handle a minimum of one million passengers a year," Wafsan said.

He said there was a possibility that the terminal could also accommodate budget airlines serving international routes.

AdamAir director of safety Captain R. A. Waterkamp said the airline welcomed the plan.

"We had an informal talk with Angkasa Pura on the need for a new terminal in December 2003. It would be good if the plan materialized," he said.

Another well-known budget airline Lion Air said it did not object to the current costs of terminal services.

"We are satisfied with our existing terminal and are not considering any possibility of moving to the new one," said Lion Air public relations manager Hasyim Arsal Alhabsi.

Secretary-general of the Indonesian National Air Carriers Association (INACA) Tengku Burhanuddin said the association was yet to officially define categories for budget airlines and that Angkasa Pura should be aware that such labeling would urge airlines to declare themselves "low-cost" to pay cheaper rent.

Soekarno-Hatta is currently rated second among the world's top 100 international airports in terms of passenger growth since 2003.

The BPS reported that the number of domestic passengers traveling through the airport last year increased by 24.4 percent from 2003's 6.4 million.

The growing number of domestic passengers was caused by an increase in the number of air carriers offering cheap fares, said BPS director of trade and services statistics Nursinah Amal Urai. (003)