Changi Airport International, the operator of the world's best Changi Airport in Singapore, has won a 25-year concession to operate Komodo Airport in Labuan Bajo, the main gateway to the world-renowned Komodo dragon national park in East Nusa Tenggara.
The Transportation Ministry announced on Thursday that Changi's consortium, which includes Jakarta-listed airport service firm Cardig Aero Services and Changi's subsidiary Changi Airports Mena, will invest Rp 1.2 trillion ($86 million) to expand the airport's runway, aprons, and international terminals and another Rp 5.7 trillion for its operation. The operator will hand back the airport management to the government at the end of the concession, Jakarta Globe reported.
The consortium will invest 1.2 trillion rupiah (S$116 million) over five years to expand the airport, including lengthening the runway to accommodate bigger planes likely to fly directly from countries such as China, Japan and India, and increasing its capacity by more than six-fold to handle 4 million passengers, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi told a news conference, as quoted by The Straits Times.
"This is a start for us to offer other (airports)," Mr Sumadi said. "I'm asking for your support so we can reduce our dependence on the budget and continue to build infrastructure across the country," he said.
The airport development was part of its effort to support Labuan Bajo as one of Indonesia's priority tourism development to make 10 'New Balis'.
The coordinating Minister for Investment and Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said the government has lofty ambition for Labuan Bajo in the medium term.
"We hope that [Labuan Bajo] can host APEC or G20 meeting," Luhut said, referring to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation and the group of 20 world's largest economies that Indonesia is part of. The country plans to submit a proposal for hosting the APEC meeting in 2024 and the G20 meeting a year earlier.
The project also marked a successful public-private partnership (PPP) scheme in any airport that the government has been promoting in the past few years for developing infrastructure in the country. Komodo was the first airport in the country to be developed under such a scheme.
The government plans to offer next year the development of Singkawang Airport in Pontianak, West Kalimantan and Sam Ratulangi Airport in Manado, North Sulawesi to foreign investors, using PPP scheme.
