Soekarno-Hatta Airport Expansion Set to Begin in July

ID/Tri Listiyarini & Faisal Maliki Baskoro

After a long wait, work on the expansion of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is set to begin soon.

Tri Suriadjie Sunoko, president director of state airport operator Angkasa Pura II, said on Wednesday that the ground-breaking ceremony for the expansion of the 13th-busiest airport in the world would take place in July.

The first phase of the project will include the expansion of the third terminal and the construction of an access road, a cargo terminal and a new integrated building linking the three terminals.

Soekarno-Hatta, built in the early 1980s, was intended to handle up to 22 million passengers a year but served 44 million in 2010. The expansion, which is expected to finish in 2014, will increase the airport’s annual passenger handling capacity to 62 million. It will also boost the apron capacity to 174 aircraft from 125 and triple cargo handling capacity to 1.5 million tons.

The highlight of the project, which was drawn up by engineers at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), will be the integrated building which will serve as a “one-stop service” center for commercial and leisure activities. It will include a mall, restaurants, a hotel, offices and a convention center, as well as enough parking for up to 20,000 cars.

The new building will be built between the first and second terminals. A small tram will run between them.

The Transportation Ministry has vowed to ensure that Soekarno-Hatta attains world-class status by 2015, when the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Open Skies agreement is set to go into effect.

Harry Cahyono, Angkasa Pura II’s corporate secretary, said the new airport would phase out “social problems” such as scalpers and street vendors.

“It will be cleaner, modern but with an Indonesian flavor, and even the toilets will be revamped,” he said. “Social problems will be eliminated by themselves.”

Angkasa Pura II has said Rp 11.75 trillion ($1.27 billion) will be needed for the project and that it will allocate at least Rp 1.4 trillion this year. However, Harry said the numbers were not final.

“I can’t tell you how much it will cost because the numbers are still changing. But we’re talking trillions of rupiah.”