Riza Roidila Mufti, Jakarta – The government's social restriction policy to encourage people to stay at home, launched in the middle of March, has contributed significantly to the drop in passenger traffic registered at major Indonesian airports.
State-Owned Airport Operator Angkasa Pura II, which manages Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang and Halim Perdakusuma Airport in East Jakarta, reported lower passenger numbers at the airports.
"If we look at our data from the period of March 16 to 29, there was a decline in passenger movement at the two airports," Angkasa Pura II president director Muhammad Awaludddin said in a statement.
According to Angkasa Pura II's data, 763,633 passengers using domestic flights were registered at Soekarno-Hatta airport from March 16 to 22, the first week of the 'working-from-home' program. In the second week or from March 23 to 29, the number of passengers totaled only 500,080, marking a 34.5 percent decline from the previous week.On a normal day, the number of passengers at Soekarno-Hatta airport is 200,000 per day.
In line with the decline in passengers, the airport also saw a drop in aircraft traffic to 6,069 flights in the first week of the 'working-from-home' program and to only 3,992 flights in the second week.
On a normal day, there would be 1,200 flights a day.
Moreover, at Halim Perdanakusima Jakarta, Angkasa Pura II, the number of passengers totaled 86,653 passengers in the first week and 56,265 passengers in the second week of the home quarantine period. Meanwhile, aircraft traffic at Halim dropped to 1,217 flights in first week and to 988 flights in the second week.
In addition to the decline in the number of passengers, airports in the country also reported many flight cancellations.
State-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura I, which manages 15 airports in central and eastern Indonesia, reported a total of 18,300 flight cancellations from January to mid-March as Indonesian airlines scaled back operations in response to reduced demand due to COVID-19.