AirNav sets Rp 1.3 trillion for better air traffic

TANGERANG. The newly established state-owned Indonesian Flight Navigation Service, also known as AirNav Indonesia, has earmarked about Rp 1.3 trillion (US$114.4 million) this year to develop the country’s navigation system.

The company plans to spend the money on new navigation and communication equipment to improve the system.

AirNav Indonesia president director Ichwanul Idrus said the firm expected to take over navigation services for 138 airports currently managed by the Transportation Ministry’s technical management units (UPTs) throughout the country this year.

“We have taken over the air traffic system from [state-owned airport operator] Angkasa Pura I and Angkasa Pura II. By the end of this year, our service will also cover the airports managed by UPTs,” Ichwanul said on the sidelines of the inauguration of AirNav Indonesia’s new office complex in Tangerang, Banten, on Monday.

He also said the firm would increase Soekarno-Hatta International Airport’s flight capacity to 72 flights per hour by June this year, from the current 64 flights per hour.

“We aim to further increase the capacity to 86 flights per hour by June 2015. However, we will need support in infrastructure, including a new rapid exit taxiway,” he said.

“With the new facilities and capacity enhancement in our airspace management, we hope that we can improve the safety and efficiency in our flight operations, including reducing the number of delayed flights,” Transportation Minister EE Mangindaan said in a press conference.

The AirNav office complex, the development of which began in December 2011 and was completed in November last year, was inaugurated by Mangindaan, Deputy Transportation Minister Bambang Susantono, the ministry’s air transportation director general, Herry Bhakti Gumay and Banten Deputy Governor Rano Karno.

The minister also said AirNav would integrate the Jakarta Automated Air Traffic System (JAATS) with the Makassar Air Traffic System Center (MATSC), which controls traffic in eastern Indonesia, to form a single system in 2015.

AirNav is also expected to be ready to reclaim management of the airspace over Riau Islands, which has been controlled by Singapore since 1946. “We also aim that by 2016 we can propose to the ICAO [International Civil Aviation Organization] that we take over our airspace management from Singapore,” he said.

Singapore controls the airspace within a 110-nautical mile radius of the city-state. As a result, Singapore’s flight information region extends over Indonesia’s territory, including Batam and Natuna in Riau Islands, and Dumai in Riau.

Indonesia has lost potential income from the route tariffs charged to aircraft passing through these sections of airspace.

AirNav Indonesia was established following the passing of the 2009 Aviation Law, which authorizes the government to transfer air navigation service management from airport operators to a nonprofit institution to improve the nation’s air traffic services.