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Bisnis Indonesia - Transportasi udara: Langit cerah sektor penerbangan
8 January 2024
Bisnis, Jakarta – The movement of airplane passengers during the Christmas and New Year 2024 holidays increased significantly compared to the previous year. A signal of clear skies for the aviation world.
Director General of Air Transportation at the Transportation Ministry, M. Kristi Endah Murni, explained that data as of 2 January 2024 recorded that the total number of airplane passengers at 51 airports during the Christmas and New Year 2024 holidays amounted to 3.28 million people.
“This number increased by 9.4% compared to passenger movements during the previous year’s Christmas and New Year holidays,” said Kristi on Thursday (3/1).
The number of flights also increased by 5.5% to 26,942. Total cargo grew by 1.3% compared to 27,708 tonnes in the previous period.
The increasing number of passengers during the Christmas and New Year 2024 holidays is continuing the growth throughout 2023. Based on Statistics Indonesia (SI) data, domestic passengers at the five main airports grew 5.6%, while passengers for international departures soared 91.5%.
The Indonesia National Air Carriers Association (INACA) said that the growth trend in airplane passengers will continue this year, in line with the recovery of people mobility and continued economic growth.
INACA Secretary General Bayu Sutanto said that passenger growth in 2024 will follow the trend in 2023. This is partly supported by continued economic growth.
In addition, people mobility which was restricted during the 2020-2021 pandemic period will also recover.
“There is growth, but it will not be as drastic as the growth trend in 2023. Because it will depend on supply and demand,” said Bayu when contacted on Friday (5/1).
Based on trends, Bayu predicts that the number of domestic airplane passengers in Indonesia could return to pre-pandemic levels as early as the end of 2024, and at the latest in early 2025.
He mentioned that the recovery of international passenger trend would take longer. Recovery to pre-pandemic levels would only occur at the end of 2025. “Because passengers will need longer preparations, such as processing visas and others,” he added.
On the other hand, one of the challenges that may hamper passenger growth is the availability of the aircraft fleet. Bayu said that it would be difficult for Indonesia’s aircraft fleet to return to pre-pandemic levels of around 700 units in 2024.
Bayu said that the lack of aircraft fleet was partly due to the scarcity of aircraft spare parts. This happened following the disruption of the supply chain for these spare parts due to the Russia vs Ukraine conflict.
Moreover, the aircraft reactivation process by both the airline and the aircraft provider company or lessor also takes a long time. Bayu stated this was due to the stagnating capacity of aircraft maintenance, repair & overhaul (MRO) facilities during the pandemic.
“Reactivation of the fleet will take a long time because the MRO capacity has not increased significantly. The number of fleet would probably recover only in 2024-2025,” said Bayu.
Resolving itself
A similar statement was given by the Chair of the Aviation Transportation Forum of the Indonesia Transportation Society (MTI) Aris Wibowo. However, according to him, the problem of limited aircraft fleet will resolve itself.
He said that airlines would increase their fleet more intensively, either by purchasing or leasing aircraft.
“If [passenger] demand is high, airlines will be more willing to invest in purchasing or leasing aircraft,” explained Aris when contacted on Friday (5/1).
Aris said the aircraft addition would occur throughout 2024-2025. Moreover, currently there are many new types of more economic aircraft that could increase operational efficiency.
Aris also mentioned that the problem of fleet shortages in Indonesia was likely not caused by the availability of aircraft on the market. According to him, airlines are probably waiting and seeing to purchase these new types of aircraft.
According to Aris, the increase in airplane passengers in 2024 would not only come from existing airplane passengers, but also new customers.
He said that the aviation sector’s recovery rate would return to pre-pandemic levels around the end of 2024 to mid-2025.
According to him, one sector that needs the government’s attention in 2024 is the development of water-based airports.It seems that the APBN allocation for infrastructure development remains strong at the end of the term of President Jokowi and Vice President Ma’ruf Amin.
Jokowi’s loyalty in allocating budget for infrastructure development was evident after Jokowi announced that infrastructure capital expenditure in 2024 reached Rp422.7 trillion. The fund allocation for infrastructure this year could be the largest during the leadership of Jokowi-Ma’ruf Amin. (Alifian Asmaayasi/Akbar Evandio)
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