State-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura II (AP II) has recorded a jump in the number of passengers for both domestic and international flights, as the government relaxes restrictions on air travel.
Recently issued Transportation Ministry circular letter no. 13/2020 allows for an increase in passenger numbers per flight to 70 percent of the respective aircraft’s capacity, up from the previous 50 percent.
The new regulation came into force on June 8 and on June 10 the number of passengers in AP II’s 19 airports doubled to 14,700 passengers, from an average of 7,000 passengers on June 8 and June 9.
“The number of passengers is slowly rising and stakeholders in our airports are working to ensure the health protocols are implemented,” the company’s president director Muhammad Awaluddin said on Thursday in an official statement.
Pandemic-related large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) have severely limited demand for air travel. According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), the number of domestic air passengers fell 85.18 percent year-on-year (yoy) in April to around 840,000, while international air passenger numbers fell 98.26 percent yoy.
Airline companies were beginning to resume operations, Awaluddin said.
The country’s biggest airline company Lion Air Group resumed its operations starting on June 10, after a temporary flight suspension earlier this month.
Meanwhile, national flag carrier Garuda Indonesia and its low-cost subsidiary Citilink are also operating their flights, and low-cost carrier AirAsia Indonesia is set to resume flights on June 19.
“The number of passengers is lower than in normal conditions, but it has started to pick up in this adaptation period,” he said, referring to the country’s transition to so-called “new normal”.
To prevent crowding at the airports, AP II is also planning to launch a mobile application called Travelation to allow passengers to upload the required documents to board and simplify the checking process.
According to the new regulations, passengers need to provide a letter showing the negative result of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test or a COVID-19 rapid test to travel. Rapid test result documents are valid for three days after the test is taken, while PCR tests are valid for seven days.
