Surabaya, East Java (ANTARA) - To meet increasing passengers five main airports in the country are now being prepared to operate 24 hours, Transportation Minister EE Mangindaan said. "In principle we have agreed for the planned operation of airports in Indonesia for 24 hours and preparations are now still being made for it," he said to newsmen here on Monday. He hoped with the non-stop operation of the airports congestion could be reduced. He could not as yet tell when exactly the plan would be started but said five airports that are prepared to operate 24 hours are Soekarno-Hatta in Jakarta, Juanda in Surabaya, East Java, Polonia in Medan, North Sumatra, Ngurah Rai in Denpasar, Bali and Hasanuddin in Makassar, South Sulawesi. "For the time being only five would be (involved) and used as a pilot project," he said adding "technicalities of the operation are now still being discussed and the results of it would soon be known". The minister said one of the obstacles hindering the operation of airports for 24 hours is manpower. The head of the East Java province's transportation and road traffic service, Wahid Wahyudi, said infrastructure in the region has been ready and he has seen no significant problems in the area. He said the biggest problem is readiness of airline companies. "There is no problem with regard to infrastructure in Juanda. The problem is in the airline companies and this is now still being studied and analyzed thoroughly," he said. The Juanda airport now has a capacity of accommodating 6.5 million passengers but the number of passengers at the airport this year is expected to reach 14 million. (*)


Editor : Edy M Yakub
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