Airport woes in Indonesia

Frequent flyers have urged Soekarno-Hatta International Airport operator, PT Angkasa Pura II, to improve services as the holiday season approaches.

The company has been recently plagued by technical faults that have caused major travel delays. Many complained of an airport blackout on August 6 that caused delays for at least 63 flights and shut down crucial flight control systems.

Flight information screens went blank during the blackout and travelers did not know the correct gate.

The airport’s operating system is almost unchanged since the 1980s, causing many technical problems amid increasing passenger counts.

The radar system failed for 30 minutes on August 29, after a series of blackouts hit the airport.

A blackout also struck the airport on August 3 when a loading crane fell on a power cable at Muara Karang power station in North Jakarta.

A businesswoman complained that Soekarno-Hatta hardly deserved to be called an “international airport”.

Another frequent flyer, complained of discomfort at Terminal 2, which services international flights.

She said the international airports in Surabaya, East Java, and Surakarta were better than Soekarno- Hatta.

“I think the management needs to renovate this old airport. I feel ashamed when my foreign friends visit Jakarta,” she added.