Denpasar (Antara Bali) - The government has decided not to include Bali's Ngurah Rai airport in a program to meet the requirements for ICAO Council membership although 5,000 to 6,000 foreign tourists arrive there every day.
"One of the five airports that we have included in the program namely Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport has already been fully operational 24 hours while four others namely airports in Medan (North Sumatra), Balikpapan (East Kalimantan), Makassar (South Sulawesi) and Surabaya (East Java) will soon be opened for 24 hours," Transport Minister Freddy Numberi said here on Tuesday on the sidelines of a meeting of the steering committee for the 7th Cooperative Aviation Security Program Asia Pacific (CASP-AP).
He said the government would operate at least five international airports 24 hours everyday to meet the requirements for the International Civil Aviation Organization Council membership.
Freddy flanked by ICAO regional representative in Bangkok, Mochtar Awan, said so far only Soekarno-Hatta that had been operating fully for 24 hours serving all incoming flights.
Ngurah Rai is not included for fear too many flights will be arriving there, he said.
"If that happens it is feared it will hurt domestic flights. That is what we are anticipating against," he said.
Ngurah Rai has actually been operating for 24 hours so far although it has not serving non-stop as latest regular flights arrive at between 2am and 3am and early afterwards it already starts serving flights, an airport source said.
Another reason for not including Ngurah Rai in the program is that it has to be totally closed once a year to respect Hindu's Seclusion Day.
Freddy said the requirement for a 24-hour service is related to security namely to make it easy for planes forced to land to nearby airport during emergency.
"The requirement is needed for planes during emergency besides for international flights to enter Indonesia," he said.
Although airports in Makassar, Medan, Balikpapan and Surabaya will soon be opened 24 hours it does not mean they will operate non-stop meaning day and night serving flights but only that they will be ready in case they are needed.
Freddy said the 24-hour opening of the airports would increase incoming flights and therefore national airlines are worried they will lose passengers.
He said it was not impossible that it would happen as international airlines would compete to offer cheaper fares.
"In view of that not all our 26 airports are opened for 24 hours," he said.
Freddy said the government hoped Indonesia's wish to become ICAO Council member could be realized in 2013.
By becoming an ICAO Council member Indonesia would have a bargaining power and be able to participate in international flight policy making.
Mokhtar Awan meanwhile said that flight security system in Asia Pacific has been relatively good.
The two-day meeting discussed flight security system program for Asia Pacific and "the needs of members in the CASP-AP cooperation for the application of Annex 17 on Security and Annex 9 on Facilities," he said.
The meeting was attended by delegations from CASP-AP member countries such as Indonesia, Cambodia, Hong Kong, Macao, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Timor Leste.
Representatives from China, the US, New Zealand, Britain and Papua New Guinea attended but not as members.(*)
