Christmas And New Year Holidays, Ministry Of Transportation: General Transportation Passenger Trends In Sorong Increase

Secretary General of the Ministry of Transportation Novie Riyanto. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The movement of the number of public transport passengers in Sorong, Papua has experienced a significant upward trend during the 2022 Christmas and 2023 New Year holidays this time.

Secretary General of the Ministry of Transportation Novie Riyanto admitted that he had monitored a number of ports and airports.

"Although the number of passengers has increased, in general, public transportation services are running smoothly, safely, and under control," said Novie Riyanto in Sorong, Papua, Sunday, December 25.

Novie also conducted a review of Sorong Port and Domine Eduard Osok Airport (DEO), in order to monitor and evaluate the 2022/2023 Christmas and New Year transportation.

At DEO Airport, there is a trend of increasing air transport passengers which is dominated by routes to and from Ambon, Makassar, and Jakarta.

"The airport manager (UPBU) Sorong has coordinated with airlines to alert additional aircraft, in order to anticipate a surge in passengers," said Novie.

To anticipate the surge in ship passengers at Sorong Port, said Novie, the Sorong Harbormaster Office and Port Authority (KSOP) have alerted navigation ships and marine and coast guard ships (KPLP), which will be used as spare ships if passenger ship capacity is inadequate.

"But until now, the existing passenger ships are still able to serve the surge in passengers," said Novie.

Based on data, continued Novie, the number of ships operating in Sorong Port was 57 ships, or an increase of 21.28 percent from the number of ships in the previous year's Naru, which was 47 ships.

The total number of ship passengers also increased by 80.88 percent or 26,550 passengers compared to the previous year, which was 14,678 passengers.