Indonesia’s first private airport is currently being built on Bintan Island by PT Bintan Resort Cakrawala along with private carrier Sriwajaya Air.
The total area of the airport is estimated at 1,300–1,500 hectares.
Gallant Venture, the parent company of Salim Group’s Bintan Resort, is claimed to be financing the project value as much as $150 million.
“We carried out site preparation; we are currently working on expanding the runway and airport,” said PT Bintan Resort Cakrawala General Manager Abdul Wahab.
In addition to the airport, there may even be a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) department for Sriwajaya Air.
Construction of the primary phase of the event, which incorporates a 300-meter runway, airport constructing and MRO, is anticipated to be accomplished by 2019, with the airport ready for operation a yr later.
The latest MRO company will accept service requests from other airlines, provided that the variety of MRO services available in Indonesia continues to be limited.
“The completion of the first phase is expected to attract two to three million tourists to Bintan Island,” Abdul added.
The second phase will deal with developing the air hub where the flight school is situated and is anticipated to be accomplished by 2025. “The air hub could employ 25,000 to 35,000 staff from different regions of Indonesia,” Abdul said.
The next stage might be the development of a second runway.
Abdul says that because of the brand new airport, the island is anticipated to welcome 600,000 tourists by the tip of the yr, 80 percent of that are from abroad. The average variety of foreign tourists visiting Bintan annually is 200,000 people.
“The number of foreign tourists in Bintan in 2016 reached 2,004,000 people, accounting for 17 percent of the total number of tourists in Indonesia. Moreover, Bintan airport will help solve air connectivity problems,” said Tourism Minister Arief Yahya.
