JAKARTA (THE JAKARTA POST/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - State airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II (AP II) is confident about staying on schedule with its land acquisition process for the construction of a third runway at the country's main Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (Soetta) in Tangerang, Banten.
The runway, which will be built on the north side of the airport, is projected to be 3,000m-long and will occupy 216 hectares of land, 90 hectares of which has been acquired by the company.
AP II president director Muhammad Awaluddin said that by the end of February, 100 ha of land would be acquired, and construction could begin soon after.
"We expect to complete the third runway project in 18 months," he said at Soekarno-Hatta on Saturday (Feb 3).
He had previously said that AP II was still in the process of procuring the necessary 216 ha of land as it expected to start construction by the end of the third quarter of 2018, after acquiring 50 to 60 per cent of the land.
Agus Santoso, the Transportation Ministry's director general for air transportation, said the third runway would be located 500m from the airport's second runway to reduce costs.
Constructing an independent runway that is 1,000m from an existing one would cost four times AP II's current budget, he added.
Once completed, the third runway would increase Soekarno-hatta's handling capacity to 114 aircraft movements per hour from the current 81.
The project is part of AP II's major expansion plans for the next five years, which are projected to cost 94.9 trillion rupiah (S$9.3 billion) in total and aim to address soaring aviation demand across the archipelago.
The majority of the investment will go to Soekarno-Hatta, which is among the world's busiest airports, with the remainder set aside for airports in Sumatra.
AP II also has plans to build a fourth terminal at Soekarno-Hatta, revitalise Terminals 1 and 2, develop infrastructure to increase flight traffic and expand the airport's taxiway.
Construction of the fourth terminal is expected to be completed by 2022, while renovations on Terminals 1 and 2 are slated to be finished in 2020.
Awaluddin said land acquisition for the third runway would be funded by state capital injections worth 4 trillion rupiah, while 1.8 trillion rupiah would go to constructing the runway and taxiway, which started in November.
The Transportation Ministry also pledges to improve air traffic in Bali as the island is slated to host the International Monetary Fund and World Bank (IMF-WB) annual meeting in October.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I (AP I), which manages Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport, would increase the number of aircraft parking stands at the airport to boost movement from 28 to 35 aircraft per hour.
He said aircraft movement is projected to surge to 100 per hour during the IMF-WB meeting, adding that nearby airports would be utilised to park planes unable to stay at Ngurah Rai.
The ministry said it would also improve the air navigation equipment and technology in Papua to assist pilots in reducing their dependency on sight alone when flying to the region.
Budi said Mozes Kilangin Airport in Timika, Papua, and Nop Goliat Dekai Airport in Dekai would be used as transit airports, in addition to the current Sentani Airport, to minimise the possibility of aircraft overload.
