Operator of Jakarta's main airport seeks $2.6b to fund expansion

JAKARTA (REUTERS) - Indonesia's biggest airport operator Angkasa Pura II will seek 20 trillion rupiah (S$2.6 billion) in commercial loans and bonds from next year to finance its US$2.7 billion (S$3.3 billion) development of the country's main airport, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Mr Tri Sunoko told Reuters the state-owned company had set 2015 as a completion date for its project at Soekarno-Hatta, Jakarta's main airport that could barely cope with the surge in passenger traffic that accompanied Indonesia's economic boom.

"We plan to have a total (annual) capacity of 62 million people by 2015 once the new development project is completed," he said in an interview at his office overlooking the airport's runways.

The official capacity of the almost 30-year-old airport is 22 million people, though it actually handled 52 million last year.