Pekanbaru the surprise choice for cleanest airport toilets.

Pekanbaru Airport’s bathroom facilities are hot $#;+ – rocketing from #19 in 2011 to win the biennial 2013 Sapta Pesona Clean Airport Toilet Awards.

The cleanliness of Pekanbaru Airport’s throne rooms was judged superior to those of back-to-back winner Surabaya Airport, which finished turd third.

They were split by Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport, which finished number 2s. State-Owned Enterprises Minister, Dahlan Iskan, will be pleased after giving a below-par bathroom in Terminal 2F an impromptu scrub in August. Perhaps Mr Iskan could now turn his attention to Jakarta’s second airport, Halim Perdanakusuma, which finished ninth.

In the absence of Miss Toilet Triesna Wacik, Pekanbaru Airport received its prize from Tourism Minister, Mari Elka Pangestu (third from left).

The “view” at Pekanbaru Airport

Some would argue that Pekanbaru Airport’s award is a little ironic or unfair. Every year during the dry season, the airport is blanketed in smoke from nearby forest fires and sporadically closed. (This is the same haze that reaches Singapore and Malaysia, but worse). At these times, the facilities have few or no users. While the bathrooms smell rosy, the air outside the terminals stinks.

The massive improvement at Pekanbaru Airport is also possibly due to a new terminal, which opened recently. However, new facilities is not always a key to success; the new airport in Lombok didn’t even make the top ten:

1. Pekanbaru (PKU)	18	6. Semarang (SRG)	9
2. Jakarta (CGK)		7. Palembang (PLM)	2
3. Surabaya (SUB)	2	8. Banda Aceh (BTJ)	6
4. Makassar (UPG)	6	9. Jakarta (HLP)	4
5. Denpasar, Bali (DPS)	1	10. Padang (PDG)	4

Source: Detik Travel
A Google Map of the top ten shows the domination of Javanese and Sumatran airports, with these two islands sharing eight of the ten cleanest:

View Top 10 Cleanest Indonesian Airport Toilets, 2013 in a larger map

In 2011, Java and Sumatra had six of the top ten; in 2009, seven.

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Colour-coded toilets at Pekanbaru Airport

Have you used the new toilet facilities at Pekanbaru Airport? If yes, do you believe they are worthy winners of the award?