"A total of 9.56 percent of the increase of the flight passengers took place at Ngurah Rai airport of Bali, 9.23 percent at Hasanuddin airport of Makassar and 5.33 percent at Juanda airport of Surabaya," BPS Chief Suryamin said when explaining the inflation development to reporters here on Monday.
He said that the number of air passengers in the January-May 2013 period stood at 22.3 million, up 2.93 percent from that in the corresponding period a year earlier which stood at 21.7 million.
The number of international flight passengers in May 2013 rose 6.56 percent to 1.1 million compared with that in the previous month.
He said that the biggest number of international flight passengers took off at Soekarno Hatta airport, Jakarta, namely reaching 558,900 up 51 percent from the total number of international flight passengers.
"At Ngurah Rai Aiport of Denpasar, a total of 276,700, about 25.61 percent, took off for overseas destinations," Suryamin said.
In the meantime, the BPS chief said the number of sea transportation passengers adversely dropped slightly by 0.48 percent to 599,300 in May compared with that in April.
"The volumes of cargoes by sea transportation in May stood at 19.4 million tons, up 0.47 percent," he said.
In Java and Sumatra the number of train passengers in May stood at 16.1 million, up 0.71 percent compared with that in the previous month.
In the meantie, Transportation Minister E.E. Mangindaan said last week that the number of air passengers will drastically increase in the coming post-fasting festivities (Lebaran),
"Like in previous years, the number of air passengers will increase sharply. And this year it is expected to experience the highest increase ever," the minister said here on Thursday.
He said that about 3,756,464 million Idul Fitri (post-fasting) travelers are expected to use airplanes for their home-bound trips this year, up 11.7 percent from that in 2012.
This year the fasting month is expected to begin on July 9, 2013 and last for one month after which the Idul Fitri festivities will follow.
The minister said that now airlines should begin preparing anticipatory steps in the face of the air passenger increase, by for example increasing the number of their fleet.
At larger airports the flow of passengers could increase up to 25 percent, like at the airports of Soekarno-Hatta (Jakarta), Juanda (Surabaya, East Java) and Hasanuddin (Makassar, South Sulawesi).
In the meantime, the minister also predicted that the number of sea transportation means would also increase from 1,588,554 in 2012 to 1,664,832 in 2013 during the Lebaran in 2013.
He said that the number of passengers using the inland waterway transportation means (ASDP) would also increase by 1.76 percent from 3,276,851 to 3,334,425, most of which would be at the Merak-Bakauheni crossing point which connected Java with Sumatra.
E.E. Mangindaan said that train passengers would also increase by 0.62 percent as the number of train trips and train chains would be raised.
Last year, the number of train Idul Fitri passengers reached 3,102,386 and this year it is predicted to increase to 3,121,553, he said.
(A014/H-YH)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
