With booming passengers' traffic, Bandung airport looks to expand its terminal

11 Sep 2012 04:05:29

traveldailynews.asia

JAKARTA- For decades, Bandung airport was a sleepy facility, as if it was frozen in times with its Art Deco style air terminal and its few domestic air services, mostly done with propeller aircraft. The proximity of Jakarta Soekarno Hatta International Airport was seen as the main handicap to the airport's development. This is all over today. The arrival of AirAsia eight years ago changed dramatically the airport destiny. In October 2008, Bandung was only linked to four cities, three in Indonesia (Batam, Denpasar and Surabaya) and to Kuala Lumpur by just two airlines. In October 2012, Bandung's timetable shows flights to 13 destinations including international flights to Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Singapore. Ten airlines serve the airport on scheduled flights including two international carriers, AirAsia Bhd from Malaysia and Silk Air from Singapore. More airlines such as Citilink, Garuda low cost subsidiary and Indonesia Air Transport are looking at adding new frequencies.

Consequently, Bandung airport reaches its saturation point. Conceived for only 700,000 passengers a year, the airport expects to welcome this year over 1.5 million air travellers. Last week, Airport state company Angkasa Pura II unveiled plans for the extension of the passengers' terminal by 300% to a capacity of 2.5 million passengers a year.

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