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)