Govt to Build East Cross Taxiway, 3rd Runway at Soekarno-Hatta Airport
President Jokowi accompanied by Minister of State Secretary and Minister of Transportation reviews the construction of Runway 3 of Soekarno Hatta Airport, Cengkareng, Tangerang, Banten, on Thursday (21/6). (Photo by: Agung/Public Relations Division)
In order to ease take-off queue and anticipate the growth of annual airline passengers at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng in Banten, the Government is set to build a third runway and an East Cross Taxiway at the airport
President Joko Jokowi Widodo accompanied by Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi, Minister of State Secretary Pratikno and Board of Directors of state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II on Thursday (21/6) inspected the construction of the third runway and the East Cross Taxiway.
According to the President, considering Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is the busiest and most congested airport in Indonesia and the annual passenger growth approximately reaching nine percent, the Government will continue to build new terminals at the airport and to build other airports as well.
“It takes 20-30 minutes to takeoff. We are now working on building the East Cross Taxiway. Then, the construction of a third runway has also begun to the north,” the President said, adding that progress of land acquisition for the construction of the taxiway and the third runway has reached 70 percent.
The runway expansion, according to the President, will increase flight volume from 81 take off-landing in one hour now to 120, or to jump by nearly 50 percent.
“(With this runway expansion) hopefully, there will be no queue. However, if the number of passengers increases, we will build more runways,” the President said.
The President also expressed hope that the parallel construction of taxiway will be completed later this year, while the third runway to the north will be completed by June 2019.
“I have instructed Minister of Transportation and President Director of PT Angkasa Pura II to prepare to build the fourth terminal. We should always plan early,” the President said adding that the airport currently accommodates 63 million passengers and the number is estimated to reach more than 100 million passengers in 2025.
“So if the terminal is not well prepared we will also get overwhelmed,” the President added.
Construction of Terminal 4
Regarding the planned construction of Terminal 4, the President said that now it is in the process of detail engineering design, while the construction is estimated to start in 2020. “As soon as it is planned, do create the design and execute it immediately. Approximately it will start by 2020,” the President explained.
“In every development, we always seek to partner with private sectors. But it is up to PT Angkasa Pura II in implementing the business-to-business (B2B) scheme,” President Jokowi concluded.
As for the location of the terminal, Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said it will be in the ex-Soewarna Golf Course within the airport compound. For the record, the construction of Terminal 4 is estimated to require a budget of Rp11 trillion. (FID/AGG/ES) (MUR/EP/YM/Naster).
