OPTIMIZATION MODELS OF PIONEER ROUTES IN PAPUA PROVINCE

Abstract

The province of Papua has a very varied topography, ranging from swampy lowlands, hills,
and plateaus up steep hills. The total area of land is 319,036,05 km², which consists of 28 counties and one
city, 524 districts, and 5,225 villages. The population of Papua Province in 2017 was 3,911,726 with an
average growth of 1.95% per year. The transportation services are still minimal, especially in the
mountainous region, which is isolated and could only be reached by an air transportation mode. The purposes
of this study are to determine (1) the characteristics of pioneering air transport infrastructure and services in
the current province of Papua, (2) the cost of transportation of basic needs and price disparities in the Central
Highlands of Papua, (3) the acceleration of development of connectivity system in the region The Central
Highlands of Papua, and (4) the model of the optimization of pioneer aviation routes and routes in the Central
Highlands of Papua. The research is non-experimental and qualitative and quantitative descriptive, which is a
case study with survey and direct observation in the field that gives an idea of the object being studied and its
development in the future. The optimization analysis tools Solver uses in Microsoft Excel and LINGO 17.
The results of the research indicate that the high prices that occur in the central mountains of Papua are not
only caused by the high cost of transportation but too much profit taken by traders with an average gross
profit margin of 130-366%. The results of route optimization analysis using Solver on Microsoft Excel and
LINGO 17 can save transportation cost by 15.85%.