GMR wins bid to develop ‘a western international hub for Indonesia’

In 2004 the earthquake and tsunami wrought havoc with the northwestern part of Indonesia. Just down the coast from the worst-affected province in North Sumatra is Medan, Indonesia's fourth largest city.

The government has long intended that the island of Sumatra should receive special attention and there are good economic reasons to do so, particularly the oil and gas business in the Aceh province to the north.

Medan has the main airport for the region, one of 50 million people in all, and earlier in 2021 it was announced that PT Angkasa Pura II, one of the state airport operators, was seeking a strategic partner to develop the airport into a 'western hub' for Indonesia.

Now that partner has been found, and it is India's GMR Airports.

'Hub' should really be interpreted as 'gateway' here, because it isn't easy to envisage what it would be a hub for, or which airlines are going to help it achieve that goal. But the airport does have a sound infrastructure in place with an 'airport city' to be added to it.