Indonesia Prepares Transport Safety Systems for Christmas and New Year Travel

Jakarta: Transportation Minister Dudy Purwagandhi emphasized that strong synergy among ministries, government agencies, and transport operators is essential to ensure safe and smooth public mobility during the 2025/2026 Christmas and New Year holiday travel period.

“Synergy among stakeholders is the key to smooth public mobility during the Christmas and New Year travel season,” Purwagandhi said while accompanying Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya during a visit to the Transportation Ministry’s command post, according to an official statement issued on Tuesday, quoted from Antara.

During the visit, the minister expressed appreciation to ministries and agencies, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and private transport operators for their continued cooperation in facilitating year-end holiday travel.

According to Purwagandhi, effective communication and coordination among stakeholders enable the public to travel safely and efficiently.

“One clear example is the collaboration to improve ferry services on the Merak–Bakauheni route,” he said.

On the Java–Sumatra crossing, Purwagandhi explained that traffic flows have been distributed across multiple ports since the previous holiday season. These include Ciwandan and Bojonegara ports, managed by Pelindo, and Merak Port, operated by PT ASDP Indonesia Ferry.

“This year, Bandar Samudera Port has been added, bringing the total to four ports supporting the crossing,” he said.

The minister noted that coordination and synergy have been strengthened across all modes of transportation—land, sea, air, and rail—to accommodate the annual surge in holiday travel.

For land transportation, the government has prepared 31,433 buses with a total capacity of around 1.21 million passengers. In the maritime sector, 715 seaworthy vessels are ready to serve up to 2.89 million passengers.

To support air travel and ferry crossings, 388 aircraft with a combined capacity of 7.69 million passengers and 253 ferry vessels capable of carrying 5.01 million passengers have been deployed.

Meanwhile, the rail sector has prepared 2,670 train units, with a total capacity of approximately 3.5 million intercity passengers, 2.9 million regional passengers, and 51.6 million commuter passengers.

Transportation readiness is supported by operators such as Perum Damri, Pelni, ASDP Ferry, PT KAI, regional rail operators, Garuda Indonesia, Citilink, Pelita Air, as well as private operators across land, sea, rail, and air transportation.

To ensure policies, operational measures, and on-the-ground responses are well coordinated, cross-sector collaboration is being managed through the 2025/2026 Christmas and New Year Transport Command Post at the Ministry of Transportation headquarters.

Meanwhile, Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya urged all stakeholders to ensure public services during the holiday travel period operate optimally and improve upon last year’s performance.

“This command post is very effective. I urge everyone involved to complement each other so that there are no accidents caused by negligence. Any difficulties should be reported immediately so they can be addressed promptly,” Teddy said.