Lombok Int'l Airport to Operate Soon

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - West Nusa Tenggara or NTB province near Bali Island will soon see the completion of its Lombok International Airport that can also accommodate Air Bus 330 or Boeing 767 aircraft.

Lombok International Airport (BIL), located in Tanah Awu, Pujut sub-district, Central Lombok district, is about 40 kilometers south of the old Mataram Selaparang Airport.

The BIL worth 945.8 billion rupiah has a passenger terminal measuring 21 thousand square meters or four times wider than that of Selaparang Mataram Airport which is only 4,796 square meters. One US dollar is about 9,000 rupiah.

The operational and technical director of state-owned airport management company PT Angkasa Pura-I, Haryoso Catur Prayitno, said in Central Lombok recently, the BIL’s passenger accommodating capacity is three million passengers a year with a parking area of 17,500 square meters, while Selaparang airport’s parking lot is only 7,334 square meters.

In addition, the BIL has a runway of 2,750 meters x 40 meters square, so it can accommodate ten Air Bus 330 or Boeing 767 air planes, Haryoso said. The Lombok International Airport, according to Harsono, is located on 551 hectares of land, which is about 40 kilometers south of Mataram Selaparang Airport.

Haryoso made the statement when accompanying the NTB governor M Zainul Majdi at time of inaugurating the accelerating program of the road infrastructure development in Praya, Central Lombok district on Saturday. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is expected to inaugurate the Lombok International Airport on October 1 this year, the governor said.

"The president will inaugurate the airport. He even has asked the state secretariat to manage a two-day lodging in Central Lombok," the governor said.

The governor knew the president’s readiness to inaugurate the international airport when he met President Yudhoyono at the presidential palace in Jakarta on July 21, 2011. His meeting with the president at the moment relating to the matters of governance and development in the region.

Governor M Zainul Majdi is chairman of the Democratic party provincial executive board, while Yudhoyono is the chief patron of the ruling Democratic party. In addition to inaugurating the airport, the president is also expected to have meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister which will take place in Central Lombok district.

In the meantime, Vice President Boediono when visiting NTB province on July 11, asked the airport management company PT Angkasa Pura-I, Haryoso Catur Prayitno to accelerate the airport construction development.