"There will be a historical landing flown by Garuda Indonesia," Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi stated here on Tuesday.
Budi added that on May 24, 2018 Kertajati Airport can be already functioned, and technically the airport is ready to operate even before that date.
"Today is also ready. But internationally it will be allowed for flights on May 24," he said.
On the same occasion, the Director of Operations of Indonesian Air Navigation Service Provider (AirNav Indonesia), Wisnu Darjono, confirmed that Kertajati Airport is ready to be operated on May 24, 2018 at 00.00.
On the official operational day there will be two flights back and forth between Bandung and Kertajati. Garuda Indonesia and Batik Air will be the airlines which will be landing at the airport.
"From May 24, the airport will be open for operation. We have published internationally that on May 24 at 00:00 the airport is operational," he said.
Kertajati Airport will be the transit embarkation of Hajj as the runway has not been able to accommodate wide-bodied aircrafts.
Currently, the runway has 2,500 meters long so it cannot be accommodated wide-bodied aircrafts such as Boeing 777 which is commonly used for hajj flight.
The runway will be extended to 3,000 meters by July and is expected to complete within six months.
Later, Garuda Indonesia will transport pilgrims by Airbus 330 to Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Cengkareng, Banten. Then, the pilgrims will move to Saudi Airlines planes to fly directly to Saudi Arabia.
(KR-LWA/A014)
(T.SYS/B/KR-BSR/A014)
Reporter: antara
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2018
