Govt will start airport expansion projects soon
Govt will start airport expansion projects soon
JAKARTA (JP): The government, in cooperation with several foreign companies, will start expansion projects at a number of airports this year, including the Juanda Airport in Surabaya, East Java, the Ngurah Rai Airport in Denpasar, Bali, and the Hasanuddin Airport in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi.
Fachri Zainuddin, president of PT Angkasa Pura I, the state- owned firm assigned to operate 10 airports in the country, told reporters here yesterday that the expansion of Juanda and Ngurah Rai would be financed by the Japan-based Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund.
"The Hasanuddin Airport expansion will be funded by loans from the French government," he said without further detail.
Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto said earlier that a feasibility study on the Hasanuddin airport expansion was conducted by SofreAvia, a French company.
The government announced last year that it planned to invite local and foreign companies to take part in the construction and operation of several airports under a Build-Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract.
Minister Haryanto said earlier that the expansion of the Juanda Airport will cost around $115 million and the Hasanuddin Airport around $300 million.
Other expansion projects include the Adi Sumarmo Airport in Solo, Central Java (costing $130 million), the Sam Ratulangi Airport in Manado, North Sulawesi ($179 million), and the Sepinggan airport in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan ( $150 million). Meanwhile, the construction of a new airport in Central Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, will cost around $170 million and the construction of a new airport in Medan will run $600 million.
Fachri said that a number foreign companies have expressed keen interest in the projects.
"Bracknell of Canada has proposed taking part in the Juanda Airport project and the British Airport Authority in the Ngurah Rai Airport project," he said.
Angkasa Pura I now manages 10 airports: Ngurah Rai, Hasanuddin, Juanda, Sepinggan, Sam Ratulangi, Adi Sumarmo, Adisucipto in Yogyakarta, the Syamsudin Noor Airport in Banjarmasin of South Kalimantan, the Polonia in Medan of North Sumatra, and the Frans Kaisiepo in Biak of Irian Jaya.
The state company will soon manage three more airports -- the Pattimura in Ambon of Maluku, the Ahmad Yani in Semarang of Central Java and the Selaparang in Lombok of West Nusa Tenggara.
PT Cipta Lamtoro Gung Persada, owned by President Soeharto's eldest daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, has proposed the expansion and management of Adi Sumarmo at Rp 260 billion.
The company, in cooperation with Schiphol Airport of the Netherlands, will also build a new airport in Medan under a BOT scheme.
Profits
Fachri added that the Hasanuddin Airport will start handling international service of commercial flights on March 28.
"Malaysian Airlines will link Ujungpandang and Kuala Lumpur two times a week with Boeing 737-500 aircraft," he said.
He also said that his company's profit level increased to Rp 67 billion ($30.45 million) last year from Rp 53 billion (24 million) in 1993.
"This gain was caused by the increase in international flights by several foreign airlines including Japan Airlines, which doubled its Denpasar-Tokyo services from seven to 14 times weekly," he said.
"This year I expect a 20 percent increase in profit, though several of the airports under our management still suffer losses," he said.
The airports suffering losses in 1994 included Sam Ratulangi, Frans Kaisiepo, Sepinggan, Adi Sumarmo and Syamsudin Noor. Three more airports, including Pattimura, Ahmad Yani and the Selaparang which will be managed by Angkasa Pura I next month, also lost money last year. (icn)