Sepinggan airport now ready for wide-bodied planes
Sepinggan airport now ready for wide-bodied planes
BALIKPAPAN, East Kalimantan (JP): The newly expanded Sepinggan
airport in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, is now ready to
accommodate wide-bodied aircraft for international flights,
Governor S.M. Ardans announced yesterday.
"The airport can now be used to accommodate wide-bodied
aircraft transporting haj pilgrims from all four provinces in
Kalimantan to Saudi Arabia," he told reporters after witnessing
the arrival of a Garuda Indonesia DC-10 aircraft.
Garuda flew the aircraft carrying reporters from Jakarta to
test the landing facility at the Sepinggan airport, which can
also accommodate Boeing 737 airplanes.
The airport now has a 2,500-meter runway.
"The airport, which last year accommodated the transportation
of 825,000 passengers, is now capable of accommodating 1.5
million passengers and 22,500 tons of cargo per annum," Ardans
said.
More than 10,000 Moslems from Kalimantan, who went on the haj
pilgrimage this year, had to fly to Surabaya, East Java, for the
departure to Saudi Arabia.
The chief of Sepinggan airport, Kuntadi Budianto, said that
the expansion of the airport was conducted jointly by Mitsubishi,
Hazama, Kajima, all of Japan, PT Waskita Karya and PT Brantas
Abipraya, both of Indonesia, under a contract agreement worth
US$143.8 million.
Haj pilgrims
The airport, which is managed by the state-owned airport
management company, PT Angkasa Pura I, is the second busiest
airport in Indonesia after the Soekarno-Hatta airport in Jakarta.
Angkasa Pura I's president, Fachrie Zainuddin, said that
Sepinggan serves the traffic of about 22 aircraft per hour, as
compared to 40 aircraft at Soekarno-Hatta.
Ardans said that beginning next year, Indonesia will have five
airports for the departure of haj pilgrims: Sepinggan, Soekarno-
Hatta, the Polonia airport in Medan, North Sumatra, the
Hasanuddin airport in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, and the
Juanda airport in Surabaya.
This year, 92,598 pilgrims departed from Soekarno-Hatta,
33,232 from Juanda, 16,565 from Hasanuddin and 12,872 from
Polonia.
Ardans also said that the expansion of Sepinggan will likely
increase the number of tourist arrivals to East Kalimantan.
"East Kalimantan is well-known for its adventurous sites,
water and eco-tourism. The government has encouraged private
companies to develop tourist facilities in the province," he
said.
He said that 19,000 tourists visited the province last year.
Data from the Central Bureau of Statistics show that each foreign
visitor spent 2.6 days in star-rated hotels in the province.
(icn)