A hub to rival Singapore: Jakarta Airport's new terminal the centrepiece of transport plan

A vast new international terminal at Jakarta Airport is the centrepiece of a plan to turn Indonesia's capital into a transport hub to rival Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

Key points:

When operating at full capacity, the new terminal will take 25m international passengers each year

Director of facilities says the plan is for "it to be a hub like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur''

The new terminal is expected to ease delays

The new "Terminal 3 Ultimate", designed by Australian architecture firm Woodhead, will check-in its first passengers within days.

When it is operating at full capacity next year, Australian passengers transiting through Asia will have more options for flight connections.

The plan is that it will take 25 million international passengers each year, flying to 70 destinations, up from the current 30.

When that happens, Soekarno-Hatta airport will have the same international capacity as Kuala Lumpur's international airport.

"We are planning it to be a hub like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur," said Ituk Herarindri, the director of facilities with Angkasa Pura 2, which operates Soekarno-Hatta.

"We were over-capacity, so that's why we've built Terminal 3 Ultimate."

Indonesia's national carrier Garuda will be the first airline to use Terminal 3 Ultimate, but by early next year, all international flights will operate from the terminal.

Staff include 'no-smoking ambassador' up for a 'hard' job

The ABC was given a first look at the new building just days ahead of its opening — workers were installing screens and checking baggage handling in the main check-in hall, which is more than 1 kilometre long.

It is a different story at the arrivals level, where major construction is still taking place.

Just metres away from the workers buffing glass at the airport entrance, excavators were digging deep into the ground.

Parts of the new building will not be finished for at least another six months.

The woman with one of the toughest jobs in the new airport — and possibly one of the hardest jobs in the entire country — is Risma Marshalindra.

She is the airport's no-smoking ambassador.

"It is actually hard — it is an Indonesian habit. My job is to direct the violator to the smoking area," she said.

Soekarno-Hatta is already the busiest airport in south-east Asia because of the 40 million domestic passengers travelling to destinations across the Indonesian archipelago.

It is notorious for crowds and delays — but the new terminal, a third runway due to be completed by 2019, and looming upgrades to the domestic terminals should solve some of those problems.

None of these changes can fix the worst part about travelling to Jakarta — the traffic from the airport to the city.

A train line linking Soekarno-Hatta with downtown Jakarta is due to be finished by 2018.

Source: A hub to rival Singapore: Jakarta Airport's new terminal the centrepiece of transport plan