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PRESIDENT Joko Widodo (Jokowi) noted that there are eight international airports in Indonesia that have the potential to become hubs and super hubs to transform the aviation and tourism industry.
“I noted that there are eight international airports that have the potential to become hubs and super hubs, Ngurah Rai Airport (Bali), Seokarno Hatta (Banten), Kualanamu (North Sumatra), Jogjakarta, Balikpapan (East Kalimantan), Hassanudin (South Sulawesi), Sam Ratulangi. (North Sulawesi), and Juanda (East Java), ”said President Jokowi in a limited meeting regarding the merger of BUMN Aviation and Tourism at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Thursday.
The government is examining the possibility to combine State Owner Enterprises (SOEs) in the aviation and tourism sectors so that industries in both sectors can be more robust and have accelerated business.
President Jokowi asked his staff to study airports that have the potential to become hubs and super hubs according to their geographic location and regional character.
“We must have the courage to determine airports that have the potential to become international hubs,” said President Jokowi.
President Jokowi sees that currently the number of flight hubs in Indonesia is too large and uneven. Currently, Indonesia has 30 international airports. He compared it with other countries that do not have as many international airports as Indonesia.
“Is this much needed? Other countries I don’t think do this. Try to see, and nine percent of traffic is concentrated only at four airports, in Soekarno Hatta, Ngurah Rai Bali, Juanda, and Kualanamu,” he said.
In the second quarter of 2020, the tourism and aviation industries were the two sectors that were hard hit by the economic contraction. The number of foreign tourists visiting Indonesia was only 482 thousand people in that period or decreased 81 percent quarter-on-quarter and decreased 87% annually.
“It is very deep contracted. But in my opinion this decline is a momentum of consolidation and transformation in tourism and aviation through better arrangement of flight routes, determination of hubs, super hubs, the possibility of merging aviation and tourism SOEs, so that the direction is visible,” President Jokowi concluded. [antaranews/photo special]
