Angkasa Pura II: Signal For Recovery Of The Strong Kian Aviation Industry In Quarter III 2022

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - PT Angkasa Pura II (Persero) revealed signals and indications of flight revival in line with the control of the COVID-19 pandemic situation.

AP II President Director Muhammad Awaluddin said flight traffic in 2022 will increase in a sustainable manner, compared to 2020 and 2021.

"The signal showing flight recovery is getting stronger in the third quarter of 2022, and will continue until the fourth quarter of 2022. We see at least 5 signals showing that flight recovery at AP II airport this year is on track," Awaluddin said in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Saturday 17 September.

Awaluddin said the cumulative number of passenger movements at AP II airports in the first quarter of 2022 was a cumulative average of around 4 million passengers/month or much higher than the first quarter of 2021, an average of around 2.3 million passengers/month.

Meanwhile, in the second quarter of 2022, the number of passengers again increased significantly to an average of 5.3 million passengers/month.

The five flight revival signals include: First, Soekarno-Hatta Airport became the busiest airport in ASEAN in September 2022 based on Official Airline Guide (OAG) data, a global aviation data provider based in the UK.

Soekarno-Hatta Airport became the busiest airport in ASEAN with a flight seat capacity of 2.96 million seats, followed by Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, with 2.09 million seats and Changi Airport in Singapore with 2.08 million seats.

The Jakarta - Denpasar route with a flight capacity of 600,248 seats is ranked 9th on the list of the world's busiest domestic route Top 10 in September 2022.

Second, in the January - August 2022 period, the cumulative number of passengers at 20 AP II airports was recorded at 38.84 million passengers, or already exceeded the realization of 2021 (31.55 million passengers) and 2020 (35.86 million passengers).

Third, the utilization of slot time increased significantly. In 2021, the cumulative utilization of slot time at 20 AP II airports is around 30 percent of the total available slot plans.

This condition reversed in January - June 2022, where the utilization of slot time increased to almost touch 50 percent.

"Slot time is a production tool owned by the airport, and AP II will guarantee the availability of time slots for airlines that will reopen flight routes that were closed due to the pandemic. We are optimistic that the utilization of slot time by the end of this year can reach 70-80 percent," he said.

Fourth, the opening of international routes at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Kualanamu Airport (Deli Serdang) to Malaysia and Singapore, and Sultan Syarif Kasim II Airport (Pekanbaru) to Malaysia.

Fifth, Pefindo revised the prospect of AP II from being negative to being stable. As of September 8, 2022, PT Pemeringkat Efek Indonesia (Pefindo), which is a rating agency for the effect of asserting idAA+ rating for AP II and revising the ranking prospect to be stable from the previous negative.

Awaluddin said this was in line with the increase in flight traffic at airports managed by AP II.

"At the end of this year, the peak season period follows the 2023 Christmas and New Year holidays, the possibility of domestic and international flights will increase again," he said.