Tempo Interactive, Friday, 15 January, 2010 | 20:08 WIB
TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The government will include cargo airports in the liberalization of international flights or open sky policy. “Besides regular airports, there are cargo airports open internationally,” said Director of Air Transport Tri S. Sunoko when contacted yesterday.
But Tri was not yet prepared to confirm how many airports will be open. The names of the airports will be included in the ministerial decision, which will be issued at the beginning of February.
The decision is still being discussed intently.
For passenger airports, Tri said that there are five already included in the international flight liberalization, which are Soekarno-Hatta (Jakarta), Kualanamu (Medan), Juanda (Surabaya), Ngurah Rai (Denpasar), and Sultan Hasanuddin (Makassar).
"These five airports are the most ready to face flight liberalization," he said.
Tri asked all chosen airports to improve their services in line with international standards, including security and facilities provided.
“They certainly have to comply with international standards,” he said.
Tri went on to say that Kualanamu airport is still in the construction process.
The airport will commence operations in the beginning of July.
The airport will be an open sky one. “If possible, it will operate 24 hours,” he said.Previously, Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi asked that the liberalization in ASEAN be delayed six months.
The reason for this was that Indonesia still needed time to prepare itself.
Indonesia has 26 international airports, a lot more than Singapore, which only has one international airport.
At that time Freddy said that he would limit the number of airports to be opened.
This measure was taken to prevent the potential loss of national carriers due to the policy.
DESY PAKPAHAN
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