New airport planned for Jakarta
Indonesia will begin construction of a new international airport to serve Jakarta, a senior government official has revealed.
Herry Bhakti Gumay, the Director-General of Air Transport at the Indonesian Transportation Ministry, said on Friday that the new airport at Karawang, approximately 30km west of Jakarta, will be able to handle up to 70 million passengers per year. Construction on the 900-hectare development will get underway in 2015, with completion scheduled for 2019.
“We need this new airport badly because passengers passing through Soekarno-Hatta International Airport have reached more than 50 million a year,” the Jakarta Post reported Gumay saying.
Traffic at Soekarno-Hatta reached 51.1 million passengers last year – 18.5 more than 2010, and well above the airport’s current operating capacity of 38 million annual passengers. In 2011 it was the world’s 12th busiest airport.
In the first phase of the Karawang development, the new airport is set to accommodate 20 million passengers. Plans detail four runways and two terminals, at a total building cost of IDR10 trillion (US$1.07 billion).
Commenting on the funding for the new hub, Gumay said the ministry was planning a “public-private partnership scheme”.
The Indonesian government is planning to spend approximately IDR32 trillion on 14 airport construction and expansion projects across the country.