The mobility of the Indonesian people apparently has returned to normal like before the Covid-19 pandemic. This can be seen from the booming number of airplane passengers, up to 64% at 20 Angkasa Pura II airports during the 2023 Christmas and New Year holidays.
Angkasa Pura II (Persero) or AP II served 3.31 million airplane passenger movements during the 2022 Christmas and 2023 New Year holiday periods. This volume grew 64 percent compared to the same period in 2021, namely 2.01 million passengers.
AP II also serves aircraft movements of 26,270 flights. The number of flights served increased by 38 percent from 19,096 flights in the same period in the previous year.
Not only growing from the previous period, the number of airplane passengers and flights served during the Nataru Service Post also exceeded the initial passenger target of 2.54 million passengers and 20,349 flights.
President Director of AP II Muhammad Awaluddin, Thursday (5/1/2023), said, “AP II is grateful to all stakeholders who have provided their support so that the implementation of 2022/2023 Nataru transportation at 20 AP II airports has run successfully with the number of passengers and flights increased significantly,”
Awaluddin said that collaboration with all stakeholders at a total of 20 airports managed by AP II was the key to organizing year-end holiday transportation.
He assessed that the 20 airports under the management of the company could properly accommodate and manage the high demand for flights. According to him, high demand during the peak season in 2022 is a sign that the domestic aviation sector has shown an awakening from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The increase in flight traffic during Nataru also signifies the revival of the national aviation sector. We hope and believe that in 2023 the recovery of the aviation sector will continue,” he said.
The increase in air traffic is also reflected in the many requests for additional flights or extra flights. There were a total of 606 additional flights operated by the airline at the company’s airports during the last Christmas and New Year’s transport periods.
In addition, AP II Director of Operations, Muhamad Wasid, said, “The demand for extra flights is quite high and AP II airport can provide flight slots to accommodate these requests so that the public’s air travel needs can be met.”
The highest demand for extra flights was at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, namely 395 extra flights, which included 375 extra domestic flights and 20 extra international flights.
After Soetta, the most extra flights were at Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II Airport (Palembang) with 44 extra domestic flights and Husein Sastranegara Airport (Bandung) with 42 extra domestic flights. Meanwhile, as many as 125 extra domestic flights were divided at other airports.
The high demand for extra flights at Soekarno-Hatta Airport is also in line with the high volume of passengers served, reaching 2.05 million passengers, during the Christmas and New Year holiday posts (19 December 2022-3 January 2023).
Passenger volume increased by 66 percent compared to the previous year’s holiday period of 1.24 million passengers. In addition, aircraft movements in Soekarno-Hatta recorded as many as 14,877 flights, up 39 percent from the same period in the previous year.