Soekarno-Hatta Airport Has Been Most Determined To Recover From The Impact Of The COVID-19 Pandemic

Soekarno-Hatta Airport. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - PT Angkasa Pura (Persero) or AP II said Soekarno-Hatta Airport (Soetta) was designated as the airport most recovered from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for the Asia Pacific region.

OAG Aviation Worldwide Limited, a London, UK-based institution that has a leading data platform in the world for the travel industry, designated Soekarno-Hatta Airport as the winner of the Asia-Pacific (ASPAC) Aviation Network Champions, the gold medal in the Most Recovered Airport category.

AP II Vice President of Corporate Communications Cin Asmoro through his statement in Jakarta, Wednesday, March 6, said the award was also a form of appreciation for all stakeholders at Soetta Airport for their hard efforts to maintain and strengthen flight connectivity during the pandemic.

In awarding the award, OAG saw the growth in airline capacity at Asia Pacific airports between 2019-2023.

Cin said that when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, AP II and all stakeholders tried not to have much impact on the operations of Soetta Airport, which is the main gateway for the country and the largest airport in Indonesia.

"We understand that Soekarno-Hatta Airport is an domestic flight anchor, where flights are the most efficient transportation in Indonesia, which is an archipelagic country," he said, quoted from Antara.

According to him, thanks to the close collaboration of all parties, including AP II, the COVID-19 Task Force, airlines, AirNav Indonesia, TNI, Polri, immigration, customs, quarantine, ground handling and fully supported by the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of SOEs, Soetta Airport has never reduced operating hours in the midst of a pandemic.

"Keep operating 24 hours every day to serve various types of flights, including pandemic assistance and flights carrying vaccines. We thank all stakeholders, to all airport staff for their dedication during the pandemic," said Cin.

Furthermore, Cin also said that when the pandemic situation began to improve, AP II together with all stakeholders immediately tried to strengthen flight connectivity at Soetta Airport.

"When the pandemic situation begins to improve, all stakeholders collaborate in re-enhancing flight connectivity so that Soekarno-Hatta Airport can contribute optimally to tourism recovery and the national economy," he said.

Meanwhile, Soekarno-Hatta Airport Executive General Manager Dwi Ananda Wicaksana said flight traffic at Soetta Airport had experienced a drastic decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There are many lessons we learned when the pandemic hit. However, Soekarno-Hatta Airport has a strong operation and quickly adapts so that it can face the challenges of the pandemic. Thanks to support from all stakeholders, Soekarno-Hatta Airport can maintain and improve flight connectivity," said Dwi.

He explained that flight traffic dropped drastically in 2020 and 2021 due to the impact of the pandemic, but then thanks to good collaboration among stakeholders, traffic again increased rapidly in 2022 until it continued to 2023.

In 2019 before the pandemic, the number of passengers at Soetta Airport was recorded at 54.5 million passengers, then it dropped drastically in 2020 when the pandemic hit, which was 20.6 million passengers and fell again in 2021 to 18.8 million passengers.

When the pandemic conditions improve, AP II together with all stakeholders strive to improve connectivity by reopening new flight routes, reactivating routes that had been closed, and increasing flight frequency on existing routes.

In 2022, the number of airplane passengers will increase to 40.5 million passengers and in 2023 it will reach 50.9 million passengers or reflect on the recovery rate of 93 percent compared to 2019 when there was no pandemic.