Among the three airports, Arung Palakka Airport, located in Bone District, received the highest subsidy allocation, worth Rp10 billion, to serve flight services.
"Hopefully, it would be used for flights in January. The budget has been included in the 2023 Fiscal Year Regional Budget. The budget is in the People's Welfare Bureau, and the total is over Rp10 billion for the one (airport) in Bone," Head of the South Sulawesi Transportation Office Muhammad Arafah remarked here on Tuesday.
The fund is used to reactivate subsidized flights at Arung Palakka Airport.
Speaking in connection with the airline that will be used, Arafah confirmed that it had yet to be settled whether the airport will use Susi Air again since this time, the process will go through an auction stage for a one-year contract period.
"Yes, (there will be an) auction stage. It (the plan) is like that for now, but we still want to discuss it," Arafah remarked.
Meanwhile, the planned routes are Makassar-Bone-Kendari, Makassar-Masamba-Sorowako, and Makassar-Selayar.
Earlier, Arung Palakka Airport in Mappalo Ulaweng, Awangpone Sub-district, Bone District, South Sulawesi, started to operate again on Thursday, December 1, 2022.
The reopening of Arung Palakka Airport is owing to financial support from the South Sulawesi provincial government in the form of ticket subsidy worth Rp2.5 billion.
Susi Air, the airline operating flights at Arung Palakka Airport, uses the LET L-410 UVP-E20 aircraft that is a versatile twin-engine aircraft often deployed for short distances. The L-410 is operated by two pilots and has a capacity of 15 to 18 passengers.
Since 2017, general aviation had been halted at Arung Palakka Airport, as it is no longer included in the category of pioneering flight services subsidized by the Ministry of Transportation, particularly for underdeveloped, frontier, and outermost (3T) regions.
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Translator: Nur Suhra, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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