REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- East Java Governor Soekarwo said construction of an international airport in southern Malang in the province would start in 2017.

The project would be built by the central government, Soekarwo said after attending a briefing by President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) to a number of regional leaders here on Monday.

Soekarwo said the airport would be built over a 47,000 hectare plot of land owned by the Navy in Purboyo, sub-district of Bantur, regency of Malang.

The project has been declared feasible by the transport ministry , he said, adding the plan is in line with the government's program to open air space in southern Java.

In addition, the old airport of Abdurahman Saleh in Malang could no longer use at night.

"Originally, there was proposal to modernize and expand the Abdurrahman Saleh into an international airport , but frequent explosions of the Bromo volcano spewing volcanic materials to the air it is unsafe for an aircraft to land at the airport especially at night," he said.

He said construction of infrastructure and other facilities would follow when the airport has been built.

"Especially as we have fund of Rp2.155 trillion from the Islamic Development Bank to finance construction of southern highway from Banyuangi to the west," he said.

He said the Malang airport would open ways to tourist destinations to East Java's southern areas known for their natural beauty.

"The airport is expected to result in an increase in the number of tourists to that area ," he said, adding the natural beauty could draw up to 21 million domestic tourists to that area a year.

The airport is designed to have a capacity to serve 24 million air passengers a year, he said.

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