Garuda Indonesia Moves to New Terminal to Boost Tourist Arrivals

Jakarta Globe, Dames Alexander Sinaga, April 05, 2017

Garuda Indonesia will move all its international flights to the new Terminal 3
 at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport starting on May 1. (Photo
courtesy of beritasatu.com)

Jakarta. Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia will try to help increase international tourist arrivals by moving its international flight operations from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3 at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.

The Tourism Ministry has asked for airport operator Angkasa Pura II's help to attract an additional 700,000 international visitors to Indonesia this year. Garuda plans to help achieve the target by streamlining its passengers' path through the airport.

Currently the airline operates flights from two terminals at Soekarno-Hatta — domestic flights from Terminal 3 and international flights from Terminal 2. But soon all Garuda flights will use Terminal 3 and passengers will no longer need to move between terminals to catch a connecting flight.

"The new Terminal 3 will be a bigger and better hub for us," Garuda Indonesia chief executive Arif Wibowo said in a statement.

Angkasa Pura II president director Muhammad Awaluddin confirmed the plan to move Garuda Indonesia's international flights to Terminal 3, saying it would help the airport to take in more passengers.

"We should have more than 100 million passengers going through Soekarno-Hatta this year. In January, the airport had more than 15 million passengers, 14 percent to 15 percent more than last year," Awaluddin said during a ministerial coordination meeting at Hotel Borobudur in Central Jakarta on March 30.

Awaluddin said Soekarno-Hatta Airport has two runways which can accommodate 72 flights per hour. Angkasa Pura wants to increase that rate to 80 flights per hour by October and to 86 flights per hour by January 2018.

Not the finished article: Terminal 3

All of Garuda Indonesia's flights are set to use Terminal 3 starting from May 1.

"We've told Garuda to start organizing their move to Terminal 3. Everything has to be ready by May 1," Minister of Transportation Budi Karya said.

Budi said Garuda Indonesia has to set up all the infrastructure at its new terminal before moving. The ministry can only issue an operating permit once the terminal is ready.

"They have their work cut out for them; they're yet to do all the operational simulations, from check-in to boarding to luggage-handling," Budi said.

According to the Ministry of Transportation, infrastructure for international flights at Terminal 3 is now 90 percent complete. Budi said Garuda Indonesia will operate 26 international flights from the terminal.

The new terminal was opened in August last year, but has been beset with problems from the start, including a collapsed roof and a flash flood at its arrival gate.

Garuda Indonesia operational director Novianto Herupratomo and Ida Fiqriyah,

the flag-carrier's first female captain, on Wednesday (05/04). (Photo courtesy

of Garuda Indonesia)

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