News Backgrounder
ICAO calls out ASEAN countries for infrastructure failures
June 1st 2017
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Asia-Pacific regional director, Arun Mishra, has joined the huge chorus of Asia-Pacific airlines calling for faster, smarter airport and air traffic infrastructure development in the region. Read More »
“Despite the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) destined to be the fastest growing tourism market in the world, the region’s growth remains constrained by insufficient and uncoordinated development of airports to support an adequate tourism economy, including Thailand and Indonesia,” he said.
Mishra told delegates at a Bangkok travel and tourism summit that all ASEAN countries need to comply with the ASEAN Open Sky policy or the ASEAN Single Aviation market to increase regional and domestic connectivity and allow the association’s airlines to fly freely across the region.
Although several airport and air traffic developments are underway, progress is slow and can be mismatched to airlines’ needs.
An example is the new Terminal 3 at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, one of the most congested airports in the Asia-Pacific. Terminal 3 was opened to international services last month, but initially only six gates were operational and all of them were allocated to Garuda Indonesia.
The flag carrier intends to move all its flights from Terminal 2 to the new facility eventually, but that won’t happen until Piers 1 and 2 are completed in July or August. The new terminal has 65 immigration counters, 30 auto-gates and 17 aircraft parking stands. It can accept the A380.
Terminal 3 will not solve airport congestion in Jakarta. Flight navigation Airnav Indonesia’s operation director, Wisnu Darjono, told summit delegates he expected airport traffic to increase to only 80 movements per hour, up from the current 76 movements, when Terminal 3 is fully functioning.
At Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Terminal 2 (KLIA2), primarily a low cost terminal dominated by AirAsia flights, is reporting strong growth. Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) said the terminal, opened in 2014 and designed to handle 45 million passengers annually, had 24 million passenger traffic movements in its first year. In 2016, the numbers grew to 27.6 million and there is no abatement in demand in 2017. At the summit, AirAsia Group CEO, Tony Fernandes, urged the region’s governments to build more low-cost carrier dedicated airports to accommodate the sector’s expansion.
