Passengers in Minangkabau International Airport has dropped from 11 thousand to 7,000 until 8,000 per day

id PT Angkasa Pura,Bandara,BIM

Passengers in Minangkabau International Airport has dropped from 11 thousand to 7,000 until 8,000 per day

Illustration: Check in counter at Minangkabau International Airport is quiet (ANTARA / Ikhwan Wahyudi)

Padang Pariaman (ANTARA) - PT Angkasa Pura II as the manager of the Minangkabau International Airport in Padang Pariaman, W. Sumatra, said that the increase in airplane tickets since the beginning of 2019 caused airplane passengers to reduce by 20 percent.

"The average movement of passengers per day last year reached 11,000 people with 84 flights per day, currently up to April the highest number of passengers is only around 7,000 to 8,000 per day," said Executive Director General of PT Angkasa Pura II, Minangkabau International Airport, Dwi Ananda Wicaksana in Padang Pariaman, W. Sumatra, on Thursday.

According to her, not only had an impact on reducing the number of passengers, the increase in airplane tickets also caused airport revenues to fall by around 25 percent from the targets set by the corporation.

"The decline in the number of movements is clearly a big influence to income of Minangkabau International Airport in general," she said.

In response to this, PT Angkasa Pura II had made various efforts starting from the airline side and with the regulator but in reality it is not easy to deal with this situation.

While entering May 2019, which coincides with the beginning of Ramadhan 1440 Hijriah as the custom in the previous year in the first two weeks is a quiet season of passengers, so that the movement of passengers further down to the figure of 4,000 people per day.

For international routes, it is actually quite helpful with three regular flights with a fairly good level of passenger occupancy and the presence of several special Umrah flights, said Dwi Ananda.

She hopes that in this year's Eid al-Fitr homecoming, the number of flights will return to normal as last year so that it can help achieve the revenue of the Minangkabau International Airport.

Previously, a number of food and beverage business owners at the Minangkabau International Airport felt the impact of the increase in airplane ticket prices was marked by the lack of buyers.

One of the managers of Padang Restaurant at Minangkabau International Airport, Risa admitted that previously she could pocket up to Rp. 7 million per day, but since January if she just could pocket Rp. 3 million per day, she kept grateful.

As a result, the Padang restaurant located in the departure gate area of the occupation began to reduce the food provided to anticipate not too much leftovers.

"We are worried that if this continues, the boss said it could be closed because of the imbalance of income with rental premises," she said.

Not only Padang restaurants, Suci, one of the employees of the Soto outlet at Minangkabau International Airport, also admitted that her visitors were reduced by 30 percent.

If one day can reach 100 people who eat, now 70 people has many, she said.

Vehicle service providers namely taxis are also affected by lonely passengers. According to Ujang airport taxi counter guards he could get 200 taxis a day before. But now there are only 100 orders so that more cars are in the poll.

Likewise, there are not many passengers who want to use a train that can be transported to the train station at the airport.

All business managers expect ticket prices to return to normal so that passengers become crowded at the airport. (*)

Editor: Mutiara Ramadhani

Translated by: Internship student of ANTARA SUMBAR 2019