New passengers terminal opens at Balikpapan International Airport

BALIKPAPAN- Booming passengers traffic all across Indonesia speeds up the need for more new terminals in all Indonesian major cities. Over the last three years, passengers’ traffic has been growing on average in double digit figures. Many airports have seen their traffic multiply by three over the last decades. This is the case for Balikpapan. A decade ago, the airport had only a traffic of slightly over two million passengers a year. Last year, the airport accommodated 7.4 million passengers, following 5.7 million air passengers in 2011 and 6.6 million in 2012.

Over the last three years, Airport Company Angkasa Pura 1 worked on the construction of a new terminal. The investment represented a budget of Rp 2-trillion (US$168 million) for a new terminal built on 110,000 m2 of land. The new facility is now offering an annual capacity of 10 million passengers compared to the old terminal’s capacity of 1.7 million. “Balikpapan is a trade center as well as a gateway for almost every mining and plantation company. Thus, it sees double-digit growth in passengers and air cargo traffic every year. This terminal will accommodate the demand,” Taochid Purnomo Hadi, head of the expansion project, explained to Indonesian journalists a few months ago.

The project includes the development of 76 new check-in counters, 11 aerobridges and a five-story parking station with 2,310 spaces. The apron was also extended from 100,372 square meters to 140,972 square meters. The old terminal will be now used for charter flights while a hotel will also be built at a later stage. Balikpapan success is due to the presence of many gas fields as well as many mining production centres in this part of East Kalimantan.

He said the old terminal would be used by chartered planes and a hotel built to increase the firm’s revenues as well as to provide added value to passengers.

Sourced: TravelDailyNews