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Workers at PT Dirgantara Indonesia's hangar in Bandung, West Java. The state-owned aircraft manufacturer is currently developing an amphibious aircraft that can take off and land on water as well as the ground. (ANTARA/Bagus Ahmad Rizaldi/sh)

State-owned aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI) is targeting to build an amphibious aircraft that can take off and land on water as well as solid ground by 2024.

PT DI’s director of technology and development, Gita Amperiawan, said the company is currently developing the technology to produce the amphibious aircraft.

"Pak Budi (Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi) asked by when we could finish it. We said, Insya Allah (God willing), in 2024 we can produce the amphibious aircraft," he said here on Friday.

Earlier, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi had said that Indonesia, as an archipelagic country, would need amphibious aircraft to connect remote islands.

PT DI said it began planning to produce the amphibious aircraft after its N219 aircraft received the type certification for commercial production.

The amphibious aircraft would connect remote islands and speed up development of the tourism sector in Indonesia as it can be landed directly on the beach in tourist areas, PT DI president director Elfien Goentoro said."It can land everywhere in tourist destinations, and our country has 17 thousand islands," Goentoro remarked.

Earlier, the Ministry of National Development Planning/Bappenas had said it has collaborated with the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (LAPAN) and PT DI to develop an amphibious version of the N219 aircraft.

The move is part of efforts to make the aviation industry self-reliant, it added. Variants of the amphibian N219 aircraft have been developed to meet national needs in outermost islands, areas that have maritime tourism potential, or rivers and lakes, where it is relatively difficult to construct airfields, it informed//ANT