Why Some Airports in Indonesia Appear Empty and Deserted

The Ministry of Transport (Kemenhub) has admitted that not all airports in Indonesia serve scheduled flights. A number of airports that appear quiet operationally remain in use, but only for pioneer flights or non-scheduled services.

Director General of Air Transport at the Ministry, Lukman F. Laisa, said the government will conduct an evaluation of the utilisation of state-managed airports. The move is intended to ensure that all air transport infrastructure can be used optimally.

“We will check in more detail which airports are indeed not being optimised,” Lukman said during a working meeting with Commission V of the House of Representatives (DPR RI) on Thursday (16/7/2026).

The fact that an airport appears to have no commercial flight activity does not mean it is entirely out of operation. Some of them still serve flights with characteristics that differ from ordinary commercial airports.

“There are indeed some that are empty, but in fact there are flights — just not scheduled ones,” Lukman noted.

He explained that such airports generally serve pioneer flights intended to open transport access to remote regions. Because frequencies are limited and operations do not run every day, flight activity at these airports looks much quieter than at commercial airports.

“Sometimes it is only pioneer flights; in particular, some of the newer airports are genuinely managed solely for pioneer flights at present,” he said.

Of the total 257 airports in Indonesia, 186 are managed by the Directorate General of Air Transport, while the remainder are run by regional governments, private operators and PT Angkasa Pura Indonesia.

“Of the total 257 airports, under the Directorate General of Air Transport we manage 186, 17 are managed by regional governments, 17 by private parties, and 37 by Angkasa Pura Indonesia,” Lukman said.