A Mythical Story of The Most Useless Stalled Building Ever Established by The Govt

Indonesia is an archipelago that lies across the?equator?and spans a distance equivalent to one-eighth of Earth’s circumference. From Sabang to Merauke, Indonesia consists of 16.600 islands where Java is the most densely populated and developed one. The island has a famous province known globally for its unique culture, natural resources and beautiful landscapes, namely West Java.

West Java is the most populous province in Indonesia where 49 million people live there in which Australia and Singapore total populations are merely below such number. In 2018, West Java economic growth rate was 5,6%, it was above Indonesia’s average rate which was 5,2%. In comparison, that percentage was even higher than Singapore and Malaysia. In regards of Gross Regional Development Product (GRDP), the province put amazingly high earning in about US$ 30 Billion. West Java Tourisms and Citizens have become superior commodity to leverage, where in 2019 its’ tourism growth was 12,55% and Human Development Index was 71,30%. More surprisingly, 60% of total manufacturing industries in Indonesia are located in West Java!

By those mind blowing numbers, have West Java utilized and earned much benefit from that?

In transportation sector, most of people and commodities tend to be transported outward and inwardly from the province by surpassing Jakarta Airport and Seaport mega hub, Soekarno - Hatta Airport and Tanjung Priok Port. Causing huge lost in potential tax earnings from people transactions in those two port facilities. But beyond that sector, equitable development issue, particularly in northern part of the province has become government unresolved problems. To maintain save and comfy political nuance in that so-called underdeveloped regions, West Java government conceptualizing and putting much efforts on the table to build a mega project which we all know as West Java Golden Triangle or then modified as Rebana Metropolitan. The new metropolitan concept consists of three main core infrastructure they are Patimban Seaport, Kertajati Airport, and Cirebon Metropolitan in which, indeed each of area is initially connected by the highways and other multimodal connections. ??

Let’s talk about the airport!????

In 2013 Kertajati Airport groundbreaking was taking place. The airport initial operating plan was in 2016, but then due to certain factors especially land acquisition and lack of construction funding, the completion of the project was finally done in 2018 and officially running its’ premier operation in the same year. So there was 2 years delay from the initial plan. The purpose of this airport establishment is to replace a historical Bandung city airport (Husein Sastranegara) in order to provide more space for passenger and cargo capacities, reduce logistic cost, create new jobs and accelerate economic growth in the area.

The existence of the airport must be strongly supported by both highway and railway that connecting airport to the center of crowds. In 2011, the government planned to build the highway which is called Cisumdawu highway (stands for Cileunyi, Sumedang and Dawuan). The outset of Cisumdawu highway construction was two years earlier than Kertajati Airport ground breaking ceremony. The highway was projected to be completed and operated at least one year before Kertajati Airport was fully constructed which was never happened until the first flight operation of the Airport. In fact, despite without ideal support from Cisumdawu highway and other multimodal connections, the airport kept operating and serving flights in low frequency until mid 2019. Fresh wind blew in Kertajati, in July 2019 Ministry of Transport commanded all commercial jet engine aircrafts in Husein Sastranegara Airport to move onto Kertajati Airport. It was a trial to get feedbacks from passengers in regards of Airport services, accessibilities, and its’ supporting amenities. 26 aircrafts movements and 2.900 passangers from 11 domestic and 2 international destinations were recorded as an average number in the airport history book. Unfortunately, those intriguing numbers slowly went down over the months and finally disappeared in April 2020 due to the pandemic.

Many believe that unfinished Cisumdawu highway project becoming the main reason why the Airport is considered as the most useless stalled building ever established by the government. It’s been two years that the airport hadn’t yet served any commercial scheduled passenger flight, since covid-19 pandemic begun spread throughout the country in 2020. The misery is worsen by the highway project that ain’t over till the fat lady sings. Counting back to years behind, it has been 11 years since its’ first groundbreaking and the highway hasn’t been completed yet. So whose fault is that? Did the government complete the establishment of the airport without any measurements or calculation? Okay, stop blaming anyone! ??

Nowadays, we see Cisumdawu Highway completion is still undergoing. Most of citizens don’t realize that the terrains and obstacles that the constructor teams are facing on building Cisumdawu highway are extremely hard. They need super effort to complete that. From facing local citizens resistance in dealing with land acquisition issues up to extreme condition of the highway terrain structure. Imagine that the constructors must hollow out the mountain to build a very long twin tunnel, they must blasting the rocks, building bridges, split down the mountain and keep its’ land structure steady and strong to open a big alley and preventing landslide which cause lots of shifting scenarios that end in completion target delay. As in our case, what we need to do is just to build an Airport in an open space which is relatively, perhaps, easier than building Cisumdawu highway.??

Today, the central government make a very clear statement that Cisumdawu highway must be completed at the end of 2022. As everyone knows that the highway is divided into 6 sections in which the first section had been effectively used in January 2022. And if we look at the completion timeline, the progress for land acquisition is fully completed in every section. In the other hand, the construction of section 4 and 5 are still undergoing, while the finishing touch for covering two big slopes in section 2 have been 85%. So the government strongly believe that in the beginning of 2023 the highway can be fully operated.

Will the airport reach its’ potential when the highway is operating?

During the vacuity periods, Kertajati Airport is not just standing still, tons of business approaches and negotiations were done by the commercial team to gain revenues, fill the empty holes of aviation supporting businesses, and bring the traffics back. Airport masterplan then was remodeled to fit with the most updated market demands and to accommodate the growing size of aviation businesses variables. Long term business plan is renewed to make a sustainable business ecosystem not only in the airport but also in the aerocity. Company regulation adjustments are made to strengthen organization’s fundamental and to facilitate business prospect’s interest in line with good corporate governance principle. The transformation was coming along with hurtful struggles and sacrifices before it came to a tiny bright spot at the end of 2021.

December 2021 was the beginning of resurrection of the Airport where Asia Cargo Airlines commencing their first ever scheduled cargo flight in Kertajati Airport. In the next three following months, Trigana Airlines made their wheels mark on the airport’s runway for the first time. Both airlines combined, operating four different schedules to three different destinations in a daily basis. The airport gained more traction in aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul business as it had successfully embraced one reputable regional air freighter operator to build their aircraft maintenance facility in the area. Another pivotal moment occurred in July as the first international cargo flight operated in Kertajati Airport where Asia Cargo Airlines brought out more than 14 tons of garments from Kertajati to Kuala Lumpur. The management set the higher pitch as post-outbreak Umroh flight is planned to operate in September 2022.

Along with Cisumdawu completion process, the airport’s run up is being conducted so that when the process comes to an end Kertajati Airport will ultimately well prepared to flip people’s doubt into confidence. ?????