Named after the first president and vice-president of Indonesia, Sukarno β and Mohammad Hatta β , the airport is located at Benda, Tangerang and Cengkareng , West Jakarta , which is about 20 km northwest of Central Jakarta. Soetta was ranked 28th among the world's best airport list for by Skytrax. For figures Airports Council International stated Soetta served For , Soetta was the second busiest airports by passenger seats numbers in South-East Asia by OAG with 39,, seats, behind Singapore's Changi with 41,, seats.
The airport handled , aircraft movements in Soetta airport commenced domestic operations on 1 May replacing the old over-capacity Kemayoran Airport. The airport was expanded in to replace Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport for international flights, which still serves domestic charter, VIP, private flights, and re-opened as a second commercial airport for domestic flights to relieve pressure over Soekarno-Hatta airport that is currently running overcapacity.
To reduce congestion and to achieve a target to handle flights per hour, a third runway opened in August and a fourth terminal was planned to be in operation by The airport was planned to serve million passengers annually by after completion of development work. Until , Jakarta's first airport, Kemayoran Airport , was the main airport for the city and was eventually considered inadequate for further expansion [ when?
The civil airspace in the area became increasingly restricted, while air traffic increased rapidly, posing problems for international air traffic. In , a senior communication officers meeting in Bangkok expressed these concerns. Meanwhile, as an interim step, the Indonesian government upgraded the Halim Perdanakusuma airfield for use for passenger services.
The old Kemayoran site was closed in , and the land was later used for commercial and housing purposes. The feasibility study started on 20 February , costing 1 million Canadian dollars. The one-year project proceeded with an Indonesian partner represented by PT Konavi. By the end of March , the study revealed a plan to build three inline runways, three international terminal buildings, three domestic buildings, and one for Hajj flights. A new terminal project, named the Jakarta International Airport Cengkareng, began.
