Turkish airport company bets on Indonesia's 'massive' growth

The Turkish airport ground services company that recently acquired an Indonesian peer expects "massive" growth in the Southeast Asian nation's aviation sector, its CE said. Celebi Aviation has announced the acquisition of 100% of Prathita Titiannusantara (PTN), an Indonesian ground handling company, for E7.5m ($8.2m), marking its entry into Southeast Asia's largest economy. PTN operates at 26 airports in Indonesia, including the country's busiest, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, near Jakarta, which served 50m passengers last year, and the Makassar airport in South Sulawesi, a hub for eastern Indonesia that handled 9m passengers in 2023. "The prediction is [that Indonesia] will become the fourth-largest aviation market globally within the next couple of decades," Celebi Aviation Group CEO Dave Dorner told Nikkei Asia in an interview. "[There's] going to be massive growth in Indonesia for international-international or domestic-international connectivity." An archipelago spanning over 5,000 kilometers from east to west, Indonesia has over 400 commercial airports, including 17 for international connections, operated by the Ministry of Transportation and state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura Indonesia. According to the Indonesian Civil Aviation Association, the total number of passengers reached 336m last year, with that number expected to go up to 390m in 2030. Airlines contract out to ground handling companies to help with passengers, handle ramps, do cargo service jobs and carry out other tasks. PTN's many clients include Garuda Indonesia and AirAsia, according to its website.<br/>