Causes Of The Buildup Of Prospective Passengers At Soekarno-Hatta Airport

The atmosphere of Terminal 2 Soekarno Hatta Airport (Photo: Instagram @Jktinfo)

JAKARTA - Photos of potential passengers queuing at Soekarno Hatta Airport circulate on social media. It was later discovered that the crowd of potential passengers had occurred due to flight document inspection.

In the photo circulating, it appears that the prospective passengers, estimated to be hundreds of people, are lined up neatly. Even though they wear masks, they do not keep the distance as instructed by the government to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Senior Manager of Branch Communication and Legal of Soetta Airport, Febri Toga Simatupang, confirmed the buildup of prospective passengers. This happened at Terminal 2 Gate 4 of Soekarno Hatta Airport at around 04.00 WIB, Thursday, May 14.

The queue for prospective passengers occurred because there was an examination of three documents, namely flight tickets, official certificates and COVID-19 free certificates before flying to the destination city. If the prospective passengers meet these three requirements, the officer will invite them to participate in the pilot.

"Yes, it is true (queues). There is special treatment prior to this departure because at least the passenger must fulfill three important documents," Febri told VOI, Thursday, May 14.

The build-up of queues is claimed to have occurred not too long. In less than an hour, conditions at the document inspection site returned to normal. This means that prospective passengers come and go quickly so that the buildup of queues unravels in no time.

"The queue at the document verification post started at 04.00 WIB, where prospective passengers had plane tickets for flights between 06.00 - 08.00 WIB," said Febri.

Not Serving Homecoming Flights

Febri ensured that the prospective passengers queuing up were not travelers. Because, he emphasized, Soekarno Hatta Airport did not open or serve flights for travelers.

"We emphasize that it is prohibited to go home, we do not serve homecoming flights. That's why we really do document validation, whether interviews like that," said Febri.

This is also and in accordance with circular number 32 of 2020 issued by the Ministry of Transportation, Director General of Civil Aviation. Thus, only people with a certain classification can join the flight.

Those who are allowed to travel by air, that is, people who are on a business trip, because of an accident such as illness, and for business purposes.

"(What is permitted) Official travel, misfortunes and other businesses are in accordance with circular number 4 of 2020," said Febri.

He said, the buildup was not due to a surge either. Because, based on the data, there are only about 5,700 passengers arriving and departing at Soekarno-Hatta Airport per day. The passengers came from 105 flights both domestic and international.

He said that the number was very far from the number of passengers before the pandemic which reached 1,200 flights per day. "So now there is no increase in passengers," said Febri

Furthermore, Febri ensured that in the future his party would evaluate the implementation of document inspection. So, in the future there will be no longer a build-up of passenger queues that could potentially cause the spread of COVID-19. Several methods have been prepared, one example of queuing for flight time.

"Yes, one of them (how to solve it) maybe we can set the flight time slot so that there is no accumulation. Second, we set the flow again, the third urge the public to comply with social distancing imposed by the government," said Febri.