President Joko Widodo, who has been pushing for infrastructure development, admitted he was confused and questioned the large number of airports in Indonesia that had the status of international airports.
According to him, currently there are 30 airports with international airport status spread throughout Indonesia.
“This is for us to see again. There are currently 30 international airports, is it necessary to have this many?” Jokowi said in a limited meeting ‘Merging SOEs in the Aviation and Tourism Sector’ at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Thursday (6/8/2020).
Quoted from Kompas.com. Although he has been diligent in reviewing the construction of the Kulon Progo airport, which cannot be separated from land conflicts with residents, Jokowi said that 90 percent of flight traffic is currently only focused on four international airports.
“This means that the key is in these four airports, Soekarno-Hatta in Jakarta, Ngurah Rai in Bali, Juanda in East Java and Kualanamu in North Sumatra,” said President Jokowi.
President Jokowi assesses that there are only eight airports that have the potential to become hubs and superhubs. The potential is seen based on the division of functions according to geographical location and also regional characteristics.
“We must dare to determine airports that have the potential to become international hubs with the division of functions according to geographical location, as well as regional characteristics,” said President Jokowi.
“I noted eight international airports that have the potential to become hubs and super hubs, again Ngurah Rai, Soekarno Hatta, Kualanamu, Yogyakarta, Balikpapan, Hasanuddin (South Sulawesi), Samratulangi (North Sulawesi) and Juanda in Surabaya,” concluded Jokowi.
