After Years Of Failed Resistance, Indonesia's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport Embraces Online Ride-Hailing

13/09/2019

The internet has given a lot of opportunities for businesses to reach customers, and customers becoming pampered with the variety of choices they can choose. And this includes ride-hailing services.

Jabodetabek (The metropolitan area which includes the capital Jakarta and its surroundings: Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi), is the most populous area in Indonesia. With a lot of people owning their own vehicles, congestion and traffic aren't anything new.

And to them, ride-hailing services, which are provided by the likes of Gojek and Grab, have been the solution by many, by becoming them their preferred method for commuting.

In the metropolitan area as large as 6,392 km2, this includes commuting to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten.

As reported by the Jakarta Post, the airport has long put regulations and restrictions to prevent ride-hailing drivers to get customers, and preventing customers to get the ride-hailing service they want from the airport. This happened for years.

This forced the two parties to play a cat-and-mouse game with the officials, who preferred customers to use the airport's official taxis.

GoCar Instan
Gojek co-founder Kevin Aluwi, at the launch of GoCar Instan at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport

After years of resistance, the airport finally loosens the regulations and restriction.

The airport shown its openness by embracing more ride-hailing areas, by allowing homegrown unicorn Gojek to collaborate with the state-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura II (AP II), to launch 'GoCar Instan', an alternative means of transportation specific to the Soekarno-Hatta airport.

"We thank Angkasa Pura II for the warm welcome, as well as its willingness to adopt a technology that improves the mobility of airport customers," said Gojek co-founder Kevin Aluwi in a statement.

Previously, AP II only gave limited access for ride-hailing services at Soekarno-Hatta airport. The airport operator only allowed certain vehicles, like personal vehicles, diplomatic vehicles, those that are registered with the Police Cooperative (Inkoppol), and those of taxi companies with certain stickers to fully operate in its area.

This however, excluded ride-hailing vehicles.

The collaboration between AP II and Gojek, follows previous cooperation between the airport and Grab, which started allowing the ride-hailing service to have its own pick-up points for passengers.

To prevent congestion around the airport, GoCar Instan is equipped with a vehicle queue management system, allowing customers to find their rides more quickly. And as for GoCar drivers, this feature enables them to meet their passengers seamlessly.

According to Kevin, this would allow shorter waiting time before pick-up at the arrival areas.

Initially, GoCar Instan has 'Pick-Up Points' at the arrival areas on Terminal 2D and 2F, before shortly expanding them to include Terminal 1A, Terminal 2E, and Terminal 3.

GoCar Instan
The launch of GoCar Instan at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport

According to AP II communications and legal branch senior manager Febri Toga Simatupang, the airport agreed to cooperate with Gojek in an effort to improve customer convenience, considering that Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is the country’s largest and busiest airport, with about 200,000 departures and arrivals per day.

"In Indonesia, Gojek is the homegrown app that has the largest customer base. We hereby welcome the integration of its technology into the airport, with support from [AP II cooperative] Koperasi Ligat Utama Sejahtera."

"We believe Gojek’s new feature will improve the mobility of customers of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. We hope the feature will also be implemented in other airports soon."

This statement was also confirmed by the Transportation Ministry’s public transportation director, Ahmad Yani, as he appreciated GoCar Instan, by saying that the initiative represented a positive contribution to public transportation at Soekarno-Hatta.

“We’ve long worked with Gojek to provide the public with good transportation services,” he said, as quoted by Antara News news agency, adding that Gojek should also ensure that its services guaranteed the highest safety and security standards for its customers.

Related: For The First Time, Uber Starts Allowing Users To Book A Ride Without Smartphone