At first glance, airports are places of transit. But increasingly, they are becoming more than mere gateways to the sky. In a country as vast and diverse as Indonesia, airports are being repositioned as catalysts of regional development, platforms for transport integration, and enablers of inclusive economic growth—if planned with foresight and executed with empathy.
Indonesia’s archipelagic nature demands a transport system that is not only robust but also harmonized. In recent years, the government has demonstrated encouraging progress in formulating and implementing a multimodal transport strategy that embraces airports as connective anchors, not isolated infrastructures. While many initiatives are still in their infancy, the direction is promising, offering a blueprint toward sustainable and community-empowering development.
Airports as Multimodal Anchors, Not Isolated Terminals
Historically, Indonesian airports have often functioned as isolated compounds, detached from the daily flow of people, goods, and services around them. Yet this siloed model is gradually being replaced by a more integrative approach.
The Dukuh Atas Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in Jakarta represents a milestone in connectivity. It demonstrates how multimodal integration—linking the Soekarno-Hatta Airport Rail Link with the MRT, LRT, KRL, and BRT—can shift transportation from car-dependent to commuter-friendly. This shift fosters democratized access, where individuals from outer urban peripheries like Bekasi and Bogor can reach global gateways without private vehicles.
Likewise, in Yogyakarta International Airport (YIA), the direct railway connection has significantly improved accessibility, especially for local SMEs, artisans, students, and tourists. The Kualanamu–Medan airport rail line, an earlier experiment in airport-based rail integration, has also proven to be a replicable model for city–airport linkages elsewhere.
These examples underscore that transportation is not only about movement—it is about connection, opportunity, and dignity.
From Transport Hubs to People’s Economic Ecosystems
To evolve airports from mere travel terminals into people-centred economic ecosystems, Indonesia must pursue three interdependent pathways:
- Vertical Integration: Linking Airports to Production Landscapes
Airports should be reimagined as logistical bridges that connect high-value rural and regional production zones to national and international markets. For example:
- Fishery catch from Biak or Morotai should be able to reach Java’s urban markets within hours, not days.
- Coffee from Toraja or Gayo Highlands should have expedited cargo corridors to Singapore, Tokyo, or Doha via integrated airport cold chains.
- Batik artisans in Pekalongan or Jepara should be able to rely on predictable logistics for trade fairs abroad.
This requires last-mile road improvements, regional freight consolidation centres, and inclusively priced air cargo services for cooperatives and small producers, not just corporate exporters.
- Horizontal Integration: Synchronizing Modes Across Land, Sea, and Sky
The multimodalism must harmonize scheduling, ticketing, and physical connectivity across transportation types. The following innovations could unlock this:
- A “One Journey, One Ticket” digital platform integrating ride-hailing, ferries, buses, and flights.
- Intermodal terminals in eastern Indonesia—such as Ambon, Kupang, and Sorong—are designed not just for through-travellers but also for facilitating intra-provincial mobility.
- Investment in multimodal corridors like Makassar–Parepare or Kendari–Toronipa, connecting ports, airports, and hinterlands.
- Human Integration: Embedding Local Economies in Airport Ecosystems
Beyond infrastructure, inclusive integration depends on human participation:
- Empower local cooperatives to operate shuttle services, in-terminal food courts, or souvenir retail.
- Facilitate public–private–people partnerships (PPPP) for airport-linked development zones that prioritize local employment and entrepreneurship.
- Design SME incubators around secondary airports (e.g., Banyuwangi, Labuan Bajo, or Ternate), turning them into platforms for innovation in tourism, logistics, and agribusiness.
These approaches help anchor airport development in social justice, not just in concrete and steel.
Opportunities and Challenges: Building the Foundations of a Connected and Equitable Indonesia
In charting Indonesia’s multimodal future, the journey forward is filled with promise, but not without critical inflection points. When approached with sensitivity, innovation, and a people-first ethos, these opportunities and challenges can be catalysts rather than constraints.
Opportunities: Tapping into Indonesia’s Moment of Momentum
- Digitalization as a Connectivity Equalizer
Indonesia’s rapid digital transformation is not just about e-commerce or fintech—it’s also a foundational enabler for intelligent transport integration. Artificial intelligence, cloud-based logistics, and real-time data analytics offer solutions to long-standing bottlenecks in multimodal planning.
Startups and local innovators can bridge inefficiencies, such as optimizing the timing between ferry, rail, and air schedules; creating super apps for seamless booking across all transport modes; or building digital dashboards that allow policymakers to visualize and simulate infrastructure impacts before construction begins.
The challenge is to ensure that such tools are not limited to Java or Jakarta but deployed in remote and underserved areas, democratizing smart mobility.
- Decentralization as a Force for Local Innovation
Indonesia’s regional governments are becoming more empowered—not only administratively, but imaginatively. Provinces like West Sumatra, South Sulawesi, and North Kalimantan are beginning to sketch their visions for local multimodal systems that reflect unique topographies and economic patterns.
This decentralization opens up space for airport-based integration that is context-sensitive: a floating pier-airstrip combination in the Raja Ampat archipelago, or a hybrid freight-passenger rail link between agricultural highlands and air cargo terminals in Flores.
What’s needed now is a stronger alignment between local aspiration and central facilitation, especially in technical support, regulatory clarity, and cross-regional funding.
- Global Financing for Green Mobility
Climate-sensitive infrastructure is no longer optional—it is becoming a funding magnet. Institutions like the World Bank, ADB, and GCF are actively seeking shovel-ready projects that reduce emissions and enhance resilience.
Indonesia’s multimodal transport ambitions—if framed through a green lens—can attract international co-financing. For example, funding airport-rail links that use renewable energy, supporting electric shuttle buses for last-mile airport access, or incentivizing low-carbon construction in Transit-Oriented Developments (TODs).
Crucially, this must be paired with measurable social benefits, ensuring that such projects uplift—not displace—vulnerable groups.
Challenges: Bridging the Gaps, Managing the Risks
- Institutional Fragmentation Remains a Drag on Progress
Despite policy alignment at the top, implementation still struggles under sectoral silos. The Ministry of Transportation may push rail-airport integration, while the Ministry of Public Works focuses on road networks, and BUMN operators like Angkasa Pura pursue their terminal expansions.
Without synchronized execution—shared budgets, timelines, and performance metrics—multimodal ambition will remain aspirational.
What’s needed is a national task force with a mandate and budget to orchestrate joint action across ministries, state-owned enterprises, and regional governments.
- Uneven Access Undermines Equity
While Java enjoys state-of-the-art connectivity—Jakarta’s Dukuh Atas TOD, the Yogyakarta Airport Rail Link, the Kualanamu Express—other regions remain disconnected. Eastern Indonesia continues to rely on patchy ojek-ferry-bus combinations with long wait times and high costs.
A robust multimodal system must account for periphery parity. This means targeted investment in small-scale infrastructure with high social returns—modular terminals, water taxi-airport hubs, or even drone-supported air cargo routes in frontier regions.
Planning equity is not just a moral imperative—it is an economic multiplier.
- Land Conflicts and Social Displacement
TODs and airport expansions, while often framed as progress, carry the risk of exclusion. Indigenous communities, informal settlements, and peri-urban farmers may find themselves on the wrong end of development.
Participatory planning—engaging communities from the concept phase, not just at compensation—must become the norm.
Mechanisms like Community Benefit Agreements (CBAs), resettlement backed by livelihood support, and inclusive land valuation practices are vital to prevent social backlash and litigation.
Recommendations for the Road Ahead
To ensure that the peta jalan (roadmap) for Indonesia’s multimodal transport integration remains inclusive and empowering, the following steps are advised:
- National Multimodal Blueprint: Establish a high-level regulatory and spatial integration framework that mandates multimodal connections in every new airport or transport hub development.
- Transport Equality Metrics: Introduce national indicators to measure accessibility, affordability, and socioeconomic inclusion in all major infrastructure projects.
- Community Inclusion Mandates: Require airport and TOD master plans to include participatory design processes, with representation from micro-enterprises, cooperatives, and indigenous communities.
- Green and Blue Corridors: Design integrated sea–land–air transport systems with environmental safeguards, especially in coastal regions vulnerable to climate impacts.
Conclusion: Airports as Agents of Shared Progress
Indonesia is no longer just building infrastructure—it is building systems of connection and inclusion. By positioning airports not at the edge but at the centre of multimodal strategies, we are not just connecting cities—we are weaving together livelihoods, dreams, and identities.
The opportunity now is to turn this connectivity into equity.
If done with care, airports can be more than transit points—they can be platforms of prosperity, rooted in local culture, open to the world, and responsive to the people they serve.
The runways may be linear, but the possibilities they unlock are multidirectional.
