JAMBI. The management of Sultan Thaha Airport in Jambi says it plans to extend the airport runway to make it an international-standard airport.

State-owned air navigation firm AirNav district manager, Dwi Putra Jaya, said it planned to extend the airport’s runway to 3,000 meters from the current 2,000 meters.

“The runway should ideally be 3,000 meters and that is what we have proposed,” he said on Monday.

With a 3,000-meter runway, Dwi said Sultan Thaha Airport could become an international-standard airport and it could also serve as a haj terminal.

To serve as a haj terminal, an airport is required to have a 3,000-meter runway.

“It is better for us to extend the runway to 3,000 meters instead of 2,600 meters as we had previously planned. If we extend it to only 2,600 meters, then we will likely have to allocate more funds to extend it to 3,000 meters and it will be too costly,” said Dwi.

He said with the current 2,000-meter runway, Sultan Thaha could serve domestic flights only. (Jon Afrizal)

Editor: Yudho Winarto