Aviation industry: Two state-owned airports working hard
This article has been translated by PwC Indonesia as part of our Indonesia Infrastructure News Service. PwC Indonesia has not checked the accuracy of, and accepts no responsibility for the content.
Bisnis Indonesia - Industri penerbangan: Dua BUMN bandara kerja keras
12 January 2023
By: Dany Saputra and Hendra Wibawa
Banyuwangi – Two state-owned airport operators believe that they can serve up to 141 million passengers throughout 2023, which is an increase by 23% compared to 2022 thanks to the acceleration of the aviation industry recovery.
PT Angkasa Pura (AP) II that operates 20 airports targets to serve 73 million passengers throughout 2023, while AP I with 15 airports targets 68 million passengers.
PT Angkasa Pura (AP) II President Director Muhammad Awaluddin said that the target considered the number of flight slots that operate this year that are provided by opening new routes and old routes deactivated during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“[In] 2022, we surpassed 62 million domestic and international traffic at 20 AP II airports. For 2023, we are forecasting to serve 73 million, which is an optimistic forecast,” he said in Banyuwangi on Wednesday (11/1).
Awaluddin explained that several airports under AP II would receive increased flight frequency from scheduled and charter airlines.
For example, he mentioned that flights at Banyuwangi Airport in East Java, before the pandemic, regularly served 10 take-offs and landings, which is triple the number of flights today.
“Now, there are only four take-offs and landings. Previously, the destinations reached 6-7 cities from Banyuwangi, including Kalimantan and Bali. Now, there are only two, namely Jakarta and Surabaya,” he explained.
He noted that the airlines that were planning to enter Banyuwangi Airport are Super Air Jet, following after Batik Air and Citilink.
“Flight frequency is in line with demand. If demand is quite large, flight frequency will increase,” he explained.
Not only domestic flights, Awaluddin also said that he would boost international routes. However, he stated that opening international routes must be planned thoroughly.
This is in line with the direction of President Joko Widodo that was delivered through Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi.
“Airport operators must be measured to see the flight potential to Indonesia, which includes tourists or businesses. The slots cannot be unorganised, which will cause a build-up,” he stated.
AP II Services and Commercial Director Mohammad Rizal Pahlevi added that AP II would balance aero and non-aero business portions.
He mentioned that revenue from the aero portion was 55%, while the non-aero portion was 45%.
“Next, we are also inviting AP II business partners to do business for the purpose of making a profit. This means that we are doing real business. Not only leasing our land to them, and that’s it. We want to have a collaboration there,” he affirmed.
Later, Rizal continued that tenant placement would be adjusted to the needs of AP II airport visitors.
“We are working on tenant mixing, which considers the flow at Terminal 1. We are also preparing the segmenting. So, there might be changes,” he said.
High target
Meanwhile, AP I President Director Faik Fahmi stated that AP I was also optimistic about improving the business performance of the 15 airports.
In 2023, he is targeting passenger movement to surpass 2022.
“We are targeting to serve 68 million passenger movement in 2023, which is 31% higher compared to the passenger movement in 2022,” Faik said.
He believes that that target can be achieved with hard work, service improvement, and synergy among stakeholders.
Throughout 2022, Faik stated that AP I served 52.29 million passengers, which grew 84% from 28.46 million in 2021.
Growth is also achieved in aircraft movement in 2022 that reached 552.778 flights, which increased by 36% compared to the number of flights in 2021.
For cargo movement in the 15 airports, he stated that AP I handled 464,326 tonnes of cargo, which increased by 7% from 433.887 tonnes in 2021.
Faik affirmed that 2022 was the start of the national aviation industry recovery as well as the company’s performance recovery.
“After being hit by the Covid-19 pandemic at the start of the second quarter of 2020, the operating performance of Angkasa Pura I in 2022 started to show positive performance.”
At the start of 2022, AP I targeted to serve 35 million passenger movement. In reality, AP I served 52 million passenger movement. “The realisation is 49% higher than the target, so it is an achievement for us,” Faik said.
Throughout 2022, he also stated that domestic routes were more popular than international routes. However, he also saw that there was a surge in international route passengers in 2022 compared to 2021.
In 2021, AP I served 109,743 international route passengers. Meanwhile, in 2022, there were 5.85 million international route passenger movement. In 2019, AP I served more or less 18 million international route passengers.
