The country's main gateway Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Cengkareng, Banten, was named the world's fourth most improved airport in 2014 according to a survey by Skytrax, a UK-based institution.
According to the survey, Soekarno-Hatta's level of improvement was better than Ferenc Liszt International Airport in Romania, Gatwick Airport in the UK, Baiyun Airport in China, Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates, King Khalid International Airport in Saudi Arabia and Barajas Airport in Spain.
"Standing in fourth position is in line with our target to make Soekarno-Hatta a world class airport in 2016. This also proves that we have enhanced our services," state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura (AP) II president director Tri Sunoko said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
He said the results of the World’s Most Improved Airport 2014 was from a Skytrax survey involving 12.85 million passengers from 110 countries from February 2013 to February 2014.
The institution asked passengers about 39 airport service issues — such as terminal ambiance, design, cleanliness as well as taxi availability and tariffs — which were then used to rank the airports.
Bao’an International Airport in Shenzhen, China was named The World’s Most Improved Airport 2014.
Soekarno-Hatta currently operates with three terminals with a total capacity of 22 million passengers. AP II is currently upgrading the airport to triple its total capacity to 66 million passengers by the end of 2014.
According to the International Airport Council, however, Soekarno-Hatta has already seen 62.1 million passengers in 2013 making it the world's eighth busiest airport
PT AP II senior manager for Soekarno-Hatta, Bram Bharoto Tjiptadi, said a number of improvements had been made, including the taxi service after an agreement in 2013 on the service level standard and service guarantee standard. (nfo)
