Grab is now available at Jakarta’s main airport with new on-demand arrangement

Grab inaugurated its new pick-up point at Jakarta’s International Airport this week. Photo credit: Grab.

Ride-hailing app Grab is now officially available at Jakarta’s main airport, Soekarno-Hatta International.

Angkasa Pura, the firm that manages the airport, had not allowed ride-hailing apps to operate on its premises before. While it is possible to book rides through all major apps, you had to do it clandestinely, arranging a meeting point somewhere out of sight of airport officials.

Grab’s arrangement with the airport is different to the way on-demand rides normally work.

You go to a designated pick-up spot and order a ride through GrabNow – a feature which connects you directly with one specific driver. Instead of having the request go out to all drivers in the area, you approach one who is already there. The driver gives you a six-digit code and the match is complete once you punch that into your app.

Grab has been testing the GrabNow matching mechanism for motorcycle rides since August, but this is the first time it’s using it on cars.

Grab also uses a separate fleet for its airport passengers, said the firm in an announcement this week. It’s doing so through a partnership with Inkoppol, a cooperative managed by Indonesia’s national police.

Ikoppol provides the cars and they are marked with an Inkoppol sticker, says Grab.

While the pricing is the same as a regular Grab ride, cars in this fleet are not meant to take orders from nearby passengers once they’ve dropped off their airport passenger. They return to the airport.

Drives must join the Inkoppol cooperative as part of signing up for Grab’s airport fleet, a Grab spokesperson told Tech in Asia.

If drivers return to the airport without anyone on board, they cover the cost for gas and toll roads out of their own pockets – but it will still be worth it, the spokesperson says.

“We are confident that as Soekarno-Hatta is one of the busiest airports in Indonesia, it will provide the demand [from which] our drivers will benefit.”

Grab has been testing a variety of matchmaking models in Indonesia.

There’s a feature that connects you either with a car or official taxi depending on what’s closer; one that puts you in a car with other passengers going the same route; and options that give you a better fare if you are willing to wait longer, among other things.