Sea Transport Company Pelni Sees 155% Increase in Passengers in H1 2022

TheIndonesia.co - State-owned sea transport company PT Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia, or Pelni, reported a 155 percent increase in passengers in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period last year.

Pelni said it served 1.91 million passengers from January to June 2022, and the rising number of passengers was cited as a result of service improvements made by the company, including by adding more options for customers to purchase tickets.

“The number of Pelni ships’ passengers continue to grow and in line with service improvement, including the addition of new channels for ticket sales,” Pelni’s director of passenger transport Yahya Kuncoro said on Wednesday, August 10, as reported by Antara.

Between January and June 2022, Pelni said the five cities in Indonesia with the most passengers were Makassar, Baubau, Surabaya, Ambon, and Balikpapan.

As ports of embarkation, the company reported 137,629 passengers in Makassar, 102,229 in Baubau, 102,054 in Surabaya, 84,491 in Ambon, and 76,184 in Balikpapan.

Meanwhile, as ports of disembarkation, Pelni recorded 133.729 passengers in Makassar, 117,634 in Surabaya, 97,601 in Baubau, 85,914 in Balikpapan, and 74,645 in Ambon.

Furthermore, the densest route was Belawan-Batam with 39,924 passengers, followed with Batam-Belawan (35,646), ParepareTarakan (26,142), Makassar-Baubau (23,330), and Baubau-Makassar (22,995).

“The majority of Pelni’s passengers is still from central Indonesia region with 48 percent, followed with eastern region at 27 percent and western region at 25 percent,” Kuncoro said.

Pelni currently operates 26 passenger ships, and it stops in 76 ports and serves 1,058 routes across Indonesia. It also serves 44 pioneer ship routes that stop in 281 ports.