North Sumatra Medan Kualanamu International Airport Indonesia plans to spend US$6 billion to expand the existing Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, to build a new airport hub that will compete with Singapore Changi Airport and Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Asia, North Asia and Australia as a regional hub. The GMR Airport Consortium, a joint venture between the Indian multinational conglomerate GMR Group and Paris Airports Group, and the local state-owned operator Angkasa Pura II won the contract to operate the airport. These companies will…
Indonesia plans to spend US$6 billion to expand the existing Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, to build a new airport hub that will compete with Singapore Changi Airport and Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Asia, North Asia and Australia as a regional hub.
The GMR Airport Consortium, a joint venture between the Indian multinational conglomerate GMR Group and Paris Airports Group, together with the local state-owned operator Angkasa Pura II, won the contract to operate the airport.
The two companies will form a joint venture called Angkasa Pura Aviasi, which will be majority-owned by Angkasa Pura II. GMR Airports has pledged USD 3.89 billion to support the expansion as part of the 25-year airport development contract, with the rest coming from Indonesia.
Estimated 54 million passengers per year
According to the news released by Angkasa Pura II, the new joint venture plans to expand Kualanamu Airport and increase its annual passenger traffic from 10 million tourists before the Covid 19 pandemic to 54 million.
This is as much as Sukarno Hatta Airport, Indonesia’s main international gateway outside Jakarta before the pandemic, but not as much as Singapore’s Changi Airport
This is still lower than Changi Airport’s 68 million passengers in 2019 and Kuala Lumpur International’s 62 million passengers, but Indonesia hopes to catch up in the end.
Kartika Wirjoatmodjo, Deputy Minister of State-owned Enterprises of Indonesia, said: “Kualanamu has a very important strategic position with a large capacity and can be expanded into a world-class airport.” He added that this may “weaken” Changi Airport and Kuala Lumpur International Airport. leading position.
Criticism from the tourism industry
However, some stakeholders in the Indonesian aviation and tourism industries have criticized the project, especially the lack of transparency in the bidding process for the expansion and too little information about the details of the project. They also stated that more work needs to be done to attract so many passengers, such as developing more tourist attractions in North Sumatra and surrounding areas.
Others questioned the timing of the project during the Covid-19 pandemic. At that time, there are still many uncertainties about whether international travel will return to its former glory, and the further development of virus variants has led to the development of the pandemic and its impact on the future travel The behavior is unpredictable.
