TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - AirNav Indonesia recorded that Indonesia’s domestic air traffic had slumped 17.5 percent in 2019, which has exceeded the initial prediction of a 5 percent drop.

“The drop this year nearly hit 18 percent,” said AirNav President Director Novie Riyanto in a public discussion held in Jakarta today, Dec. 26.

Domestic flights were not the only ones to suffer from the dropping air traffic, the state air navigation firm reported that international flights also shared the same fate as domestic traffic - albeit at a smaller percentage - with a 0.1 percent drop. This fact, according to Novie, saw international traffic help close the income loss of the lack of domestic traffic.

“The drop in traffic is certainly hard and how it has affected AirNav, but international traffic contributes to our income by 60-70 percent,” said Novie Riyanto.

The dribbling traffic of the commercial-flight industry not only happened in Indonesia but also in the international scale. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) recorded the passenger drop up to three percent compared to that of 2018.

The same fate loomed over the air cargo industry that dropped 5 percent compared to last year along with the drop at airports managed by state-operator Angkasa Pura II of 18.85 percent. Fortunately, AirNav Indonesia recorded that 2019 saw zero accidents caused by air traffic services (ATS).

ANTARA