New airport in the works for Jakarta

A greenfield site will soon give rise to Jakarta’s newest airport in anticipation of an air travel boom and demographic explosion in Indonesia.

Bloomberg is reporting that state-run airport operator Angkasa Pura II will complete a feasibility study this year for a new airport that may require an investment of about IDR100 trillion (USD7 billion).

Jakarta’s existing Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is facing immense pressures as passenger traffic is poised to top 100 million within a decade, Angkasa Pura claimed. Renovations of terminals and runways are ongoing at the airport that currently has a capacity of just 62 million.

The London metropolitan area is less populated than Jakarta, whose urban agglomeration is home to 30 million, yet the former is served by at least five facilities, pointed out Angkasa Pura President Director Muhammad Awaluddin.

“Jakarta and the surrounding areas with a population of about 50 million will need a multi-airport system that’s connected to meet the demand,” Awaluddin told Bloomberg. “The new airport will be a masterpiece of the country.”

The greenfield airport could be built on 2,000 hectares of reclaimed land or a site with a clearing of about 600 hectares close to the Soekarno-Hatta airport, Awaluddin said.

Soekarno-Hatta airport will begin construction of a new terminal by 2021 with a capacity of 45 million passengers.