ASDP Urges Service Users To Set Travel Time And Buy Online Tickets

Vehicles queue to enter the ferry at the Merak Executive Port Pier, Cilegon City, Banten Province, Saturday (30/12/2023). (Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - PT ASDP Indonesia Ferry (Persero) asked people who travel by ferry to arrange travel time again, and ensure that they have purchased tickets independently via Ferizy, especially on the Merak-Bakauheni and Ketapang-Gilimanuk routes. This is intended to avoid queues when the backflow period is peaked for the 2024 Christmas and New Year holidays.

"The movement of the people on the two busiest routes is quite high, where many people take advantage of the Christmas Holidays and school children's holidays to travel on land to tourist destinations or to their hometowns," said ASDP Corporate Secretary Shelvy Arifin in an official statement, Monday 1 January.

In addition, Shelvy also appealed to people on vacation by ferry to maintain the stamina of the health of the body and vehicle, and remain aware of the potential for bad weather, to ensure that the trip continues smoothly, safely, orderly and safely reaches its destination.

It is estimated that the peak of the return flow for the Christmas and New Year holidays will begin today, Monday January 1 and Tuesday January 2, both at the main Merak-Bakauheni and Ketapang-Gilimanuk crossings.

"In general, the Merak - Bakauheni crossing and also Ketapang-Gilimanuk when the current departed yesterday went smoothly. We believe that backflow services are also relatively smooth and safe," continued Shelvy.

The traffic for passengers and vehicles in the implementation of crossings for the Christmas and New Year periods, especially in Merak-Bakauheni and Ketapang-Gilimanuk, is still far below the installed capacity both at ports and ships, so there are no problems.

"We have anticipated a surge in queues during the return flow period of the New Year holiday which will be distributed until the end of next week, especially at the busiest crossings of Merak - Bakauheni and Ketapang - Gilimanuk. Currently, backflow traffic tends to be quiet but flows smoothly. People are still enjoying the holidays ahead of the turn of the year, and it is estimated that the backflow will start tomorrow following the schedule for re-entry of school children on Wednesday, January 3, "he explained.

ASDP ensures that the installed capacity of both ports and ships is ready. It is estimated that Nataru services spread across 10 lines on 12 nationally monitored branches, ASDP serves more than 3 million people and 700 thousand vehicles. As for the readiness of the production equipment, on 10 routes in 12 branches with details of 55 units of ready-to-operation piers and 61 ships ready for operation including the Nusantara Bridge ship.

During the Nataru period, ASDP ensures smooth crossing services which of course also coordinate with relevant stakeholders starting from the Land Transportation Management Center (BPTD) of the Ministry of Transportation, Syahbandar, private ship operators and others. The crossing service strategy has been prepared, where in normal operating patterns, management will carry out ship operations according to schedule. In a dense operating pattern, there will be an increase in the number of trips and on very dense operating patterns, there will be an acceleration of ship loading and unloading services (port time).

Shelvy asked people who will cross, either from Ketapang to Bali or vice versa, and also those from Merak to Bakauheni or in detail, to buy tickets through Ferizy with a maximum of D-1 departure, pay attention to port entry hours, and ensure the health of passengers and vehicles is in top condition. "Please make the purchase of tickets a maximum of 1 day before the scheduled departure, avoid peak flow so that you don't experience queues, and please do the ticket purchase independently via Ferizy. Avoid buying via brokers," said Shelvy again emphasized.