Transportation Ministry Explains Passenger Drop in Eid Holiday

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Transportation Ministry’s Directorate General of Air Transportation revealed that 36 nationwide monitoring posts reported a 32 percent drop in airplane passenger traffic in this year’s Eid Celebration collective-leave.

However, Director General Polana B. Pramesti said that this year’s airplane passenger reduction can be pinned down to external factors other than the rising airfare.

“This year’s Eid Celebration holiday does not coincide with a school holiday, which is different compared to last year,” said Polana at the Sultan Aji Muhammad Sulaiman Balikpapan International Airport in East Kalimantan on Saturday, June 8.

According to data collected from the number of airplane departures in 36 airports saw passenger traffic up to 2.1 million compared to last year’s 3.2 million during the same period from one week prior and two days after the Eid celebration.

Across the 36 airports, departures dropped 56.45 percent compared to last year. 2018 saw 303,454 passengers departing from these airports but only saw 136,370 this year.

Polana further predicts the passenger movement and distribution would be evenly spread out since schools in general only start its end of second semester holiday in the first week of July.

Predictions suggest that a large number of people will start taking vacations once school holidays start at that time, which will likely raise the traffic of airplane passengers up to July.

Another element dropping the airplane passenger rate is the existence of two major newly-built toll roads - Trans Java Toll and Trans Sumatra Toll - that pose as the closest alternative to air transportation.  

FRANCISCA CHRISTY ROSANA