Indonesian President Joko Widodo (left, in white) arrives at the airport in Nusantara, Indonesia's new capital city, on Sept 24. - PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM SEKRETARIAT PRESIDEN/YOUTUBE
JAKARTA (the Straits Times/ANN): The airport in Indonesia’s upcoming capital Nusantara looks set to become a commercial hub in East Kalimantan, after President Joko Widodo announced that the facility will open for commercial flights by the end of 2024.
The airport was initially meant for so-called very, very important persons or VVIPs, which refers to those with large spending power, high political rank or socio-economic status.
Speaking to the media on Sept 24 after making his first landing at the Nusantara Airport, which is still under construction, Mr Widodo said: “I have ordered the transportation minister to change Nusantara Airport’s status to a commercial airport.”
When it opens by the end of the year, the airport is expected to be able to accommodate up to 200,000 passengers, with a long-term goal of handling seven million passengers annually, said Mr Widodo, who is also known as Jokowi.
The president, who will be working from the upcoming capital until he hands the reins of government to his successor Prabowo Subianto on Oct 20, said that the change in the airport’s status will benefit the surrounding community in Nusantara.
Specifically, it will enable those living in the area to embark on religious pilgrimages like the Hajj, which is considered to be one of five important pillars of Islam.
The airport was originally scheduled to start operations in August, ahead of Indonesia’s 79th Independence Day on Aug 17, but its completion was delayed.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo (centre) said that the change in the airport’s status will benefit the surrounding community in Nusantara. - PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM SEKRETARIAT PRESIDEN/YOUTUBE
Built at a cost of 4.3 trillion rupiah (S$334 million), the airport has a runway that is expected to be 3,000m long and 45m wide, which is big enough to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft used for international flights.
Latest reports indicate that its terminal and main access roads are almost completed, but work on other supporting facilities are still ongoing.
The move to change the status of the airport is also expected to encourage visitors to Nusantara. Prior to this, visitors had to travel to the city of Balikpapan, a two-hour drive from Nusantara, to board their commercial flights.
When asked about his experience on landing at the Nusantara Airport for the first time, Mr Widodo said that everything went well, and it was “very smooth”.
Water cannon salutes welcomed Mr Widodo’s RJ 85 plane when he arrived in the afternoon of Sept 24. According to media reports, the president came from Pontianak in West Kalimantan.
His presidential aircraft was not the first plane to land in the airport. On Sept 12, a business jet became the first aircraft with passengers to land in the airport. Three aircraft from the Indonesian Air Force also conducted trials at the airport that month.
The US$35 billion (S$44.9 billion) construction of Nusantara seeks to turn more than 2,000 sq km in East Kalimantan – or almost three times the size of Singapore – into a smart, green city over the next three decades.
Located more than 1,000km north-east of the current capital Jakarta, the project was initially slated to have some 10,000 civil servants living there by now.
Indonesia intends to eventually move nearly 33,000 of them to Nusantara, but the plans have been delayed. The government has cited the need to complete the housing complexes and digital infrastructure first to ensure a smooth transition. - The Straits Times/ANN
