The Provincial Government of Aceh, a semi-autonomous province in Indonesia's extreme north-west, has signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with Dirgantara Indonesia (Bandung) covering four N219s.
"Aceh is currently boosting investment and developing the tourism sector which, of course, requires smooth transportation... Our hope is that PT Dirgantara Indonesia can meet this pioneering transportation need so that relations between regions in Aceh will be better," Acting Governor Nova Iriansyah said, quoted in a press release.
Once the MOU is converted into a firm order, deliveries will start in 2021 and run through 2022.
Nova pointed out that due to the size of Aceh and its relatively underdeveloped road network, travelling between cities in the province is time-consuming. As such, the N219s will facilitate transport between cities in the part of the province located on Sumatra, as well as to some outlying islands.
The region will pay over USD6 million per aircraft. The governor added that the region plans to add more N219s in the future.
According to the ch-aviation capacities module, the largest airport in Aceh in the capital city of Banda Aceh currently sees only 76 weekly scheduled departures (including 22 international departures to Kuala Lumpur International, Penang, and Madinah) and ranks thirty-fifth in the country by weekly scheduled capacity.
Other airports in the region seeing either very limited scheduled traffic or no flights at all include Takengon, Meulaboh, Lhoksumawe, Sinabang Lasikin, Sabang, Tapaktuan, and other, smaller airfields.
The N219 is a locally-developed 19-seater turboprop, a modification of CN-212, which is currently undergoing final certification.
