Polonia Airport Audited: Medan, Sumatra

The Transportation Ministry on Monday initiated a three-day audit of Polonia airport in Medan, North Sumatra to evaluate the airport’s security, safety and services. Polonia airport is one of five major Indonesian airports being audited by the ministry, which is under pressure after a string of aviation disasters. Juanda airport in Surabaya, East Java, is also currently being audited. Three other airports — in Bali, Jakarta and Makassar in South Sulawesi — have already been evaluated by audit teams.

Coordinator of the Airport Performance Evaluation Team, Bahrum Lubis, said the 20-member audit team was focusing on the airports’ daily operations, including safety improvement measures, security and services.

He said based on preliminary evaluations, it appears that several airport management teams are not making efforts to improve safety, security and services at their airports.

The audit team is not yet able to announce official results, as the audit and evaluation of the two remaining airports still need to be completed.

“The Transportation Ministry will announce the evaluation results of airport performance after the team has completed its evaluation of Polonia airport in Medan and Juanda airport in Surabaya.

“The announcement will be made in Jakarta, in June,” Bahrum said at Polonia airport.

He said the evaluations would not be limited to these five airports, as the team would continue to evaluate other airports around the country.

He said the aim of the work was to improve airport management.
Citing an example, he said Polonia airport management has been advised to pay more attention to flight safety.

The airport was closed for more than two hours last week after a hole was found in its runway. Several days later, an Air Force jet almost suffered an accident when its tires hit holes in the runway that had been filled with gravel.

Head of Polonia airport management, Frido Frinaldo, said the runway has since been repaired and is once again safe to use, blaming rain for causing the potholes.

“In an effort to prevent runway damage, we plan to asphalt one kilometer of runway. This will cost approximately Rp 7 billion (US$777,777),” he said.

He said the work would take one month to complete and the airport would close overnight during this period.

“The airport closure will not disrupt activity, since the repairs will be done from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m.,” said Frido, adding that all airlines will be notified of the repairs.

Apriadi Gunawan