Swissport International has signed binding agreements to form a joint venture with Jakarta-based UNEX Aviation Services, securing its first foothold in Indonesia — a market the International Air Transport Association forecasts will become the world's fourth-largest aviation market by 2030.

The deal, whose financial terms were not disclosed, gives Swissport a stake in UNEX, a company that provides air cargo warehousing and related services to domestic and international carriers at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. UNEX also holds nationwide ground handling licenses, a regulatory position that removes a key barrier for a foreign entrant aiming to scale beyond a single gateway.

What does the joint venture cover?

The partners plan to move beyond cargo into ramp handling and passenger services, and to extend operations to additional airports across the Indonesian archipelago. For Swissport, the transaction executes two strategic threads at once: growing its cargo business and deepening its ground handling presence in Southeast Asia.

"The partnership supports the company's strategy to expand its cargo business while establishing a stronger ground handling presence in Southeast Asia," said Warwick Brady, president and CEO of Swissport International.

Budiman Tedja, founder and CEO of UNEX Aviation Services, said the partnership will allow his company to broaden its services and strengthen its operational capabilities — a formulation that points to know-how transfer as much as capital investment.

Why Indonesia, and why now?

The market case rests on scale and growth. Indonesia, which spans more than 17,000 islands, recorded approximately 101 million domestic and international passengers and 1 million metric tons of airfreight in 2024. Those volumes make ground handling and cargo warehousing capacity a structural constraint as traffic recovers and expands.

An archipelagic geography also tilts the economics toward air transport over surface alternatives, which supports sustained demand for cargo terminal capacity and multi-airport handling networks — precisely the segments the joint venture intends to build out.

Where does this fit in Swissport's Asia-Pacific footprint?

Indonesia joins an existing regional portfolio that spans China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. In 2025, Swissport's Asia-Pacific operations handled:

• approximately 25 million passengers;
• 632,000 flights;
• 450,000 metric tons of cargo;
• supported by 10,000 employees.

The Indonesian venture adds a market whose 101 million annual passengers already exceed the traffic Swissport currently handles across its established Asia-Pacific stations — underscoring how much of the opportunity sits outside the company's existing footprint rather than within it.

What are the open questions?

The transaction remains a stake acquisition rather than a full takeover, and the partners have not disclosed the size of Swissport's shareholding, the investment amount, or a timeline for launching ramp and passenger services. Expansion to additional Indonesian airports will depend on how quickly the joint venture can convert UNEX's nationwide licenses into operational stations with trained staff and equipment.

Competitive positioning at Soekarno-Hatta, where incumbent handlers already serve both domestic and international carriers, will test whether Swissport's international network and operational standards translate into contract wins against local operators.

The partners will now focus on integrating UNEX's cargo warehousing base with Swissport's global procedures, with ramp and passenger services the next milestones investors and airline customers will watch for.