VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Soekarno Hatta International Airport is ranked first on the Airports Council International (ACI) list of busiest airports in Southeast Asia for 2022, according to state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II.

This Cengkareng-based airport also ranked third on ACI's list of busiest airports in the Asia-Pacific region, Angkasa Pura II President Director, Muhammad Awaluddin, noted in a statement here Friday.

ACI World had published the latest World Airport Traffic Dataset on July 19 showing that airports in the United States still dominated the world's top 20 busiest airports.

According to ACI's official website, the dataset also showed "airport passenger, cargo, and aircraft movement rankings for over 2,600 airports across more than 180 countries and territories."

Awaluddin remarked that the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's success in joining the list of busiest airports in the Southeast Asian and Asia-Pacific regions revealed the outcomes of all stakeholders' hard work.

Last year, Indonesia's aviation sector was still challenged by the impacts of the global pandemic of novel coronavirus but it had entered a recovery period, he remarked.

"In the recovery period, AP II and all its stakeholders continue to strengthen the domestic and international flight connectivity to help boost economic growth and pandemic mitigation efforts," he remarked.

Awaluddin attributed the strengthening of flight connectivity to the sound collaborations among stakeholders and full support from the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry and Transportation Ministry.

The strengthened connectivity was apparent from the reopening of flight routes that had been closed during COVID-19; increasing the frequency of existing flight routes; and the opening of new flight routes, he remarked.

These collaborative efforts had made the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport the busiest in Southeast Asia and ranked third on ACI's list of busiest airports in the Asia-Pacific region, he stated.

According to ACI, for 2022, the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's passenger traffic was recorded at 39.60 million people, while the global passenger traffic reached 6.6 billion people, he noted.

Meanwhile, AP II's Director of Engineering Agus Wialdi remarked that the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's success was the result of good facility and infrastructure maintenance in air and on land.

As a result, in 2022, the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport had also ranked ninth on the list of Best Airport Staff in Asia, he remarked.  (Antaranews)