Even in a grim overall picture, there are pockets of progress in both air traffic and aircraft maintenance.
For example, air travel is essential to connect the various parts of Indonesia, with nearly 15,000 islands and most of the country’s population of 267 million concentrated in five major islands spread across 3,500 miles.
Indonesian authorities are allowing passenger air travel among these islands, so Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport has been getting busier. By the week of September 17-23, the airport was averaging 508 daily flights, more than half of its year-ago level of 1,001 daily flights and up sharply from the 100 daily flights of early June, the worst of the virus crisis, according to Radarbox.
To help the country’s aviation industry, the Indonesian government recently approved two special economic zones in Batam, a city in a small Indonesian island just across the Singapore Strait and 15 miles southeast of aviation center Singapore.
One of these special zones is for Batam Aero Technic, or BAT, the maintenance arm of the Lion Air Group, a low-cost carrier that is Indonesia’s largest airline with about 150 aircraft, mostly Boeing 737s but also Airbus widebodies. BAT supports a range of components, including auxiliary power units, landing gear, wheels and brakes, emergency equipment and avionics.
The new zone will have a land area of about 300,000 sq. meters in the Batam Hang Nadim International Airport area. BAT Customer Service Rep Hadi Sarjono says government approval of the zone should help BAT in several ways: with taxes, customs and excise challenges, employment and immigration needs, land planning, licenses and other facilities and conveniences.
This assistance will come at a welcome time. BAT has now completed about 40% of its new hangar, which will be able to accommodate six narrowbodies simultaneously.
