I have instructed the Governor of Bali, friends at Angkasa Pura 1 and the Bali Airport Authority to make Ngurah Rai Airport more productive
Denpasar, Bali (ANTARA) - Minister of Transportation Budi Karya Sumadi wants the movement of the aircraft at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, Bali, to be increased from 30 to 32 movements per hour. "I have instructed the Governor of Bali, friends at Angkasa Pura 1 and the Bali Airport Authority to make Ngurah Rai Airport more productive," Sumadi said here Friday.

The way to make the airport more productive is to first increase movement which is currently standing at 30 movements, to 32 in one hour, he explained.

Currently, the total "notice of airport capacity" at Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali is 30 flights per hour, consisting of 29 scheduled flights and one unscheduled flight.

The second way is to make clusters where not all of the flights from out of Bali go directly to Bali.

In addition, the "golden time" of flights is prioritized for international flights, and relatively small planes such as ATR are restricted to Ngurah Rai Airport.

"I studied everything that must be included, so I asked for an initiative to give priority to flights abroad, especially tourists from various countries. From what we noted, there were nine flights that wanted to enter Bali, including those from Japan, Bangladesh and Cambodia, among others," the minister said.

If there are nine additional international flights that enter Bali, on average there will be 200 to 300 passengers, and there will be at least 2,000 additional passengers every day, Sumadi noted.

In 2018, there were seven million foreign tourists who visited Bali. With the existence of nine additional international flights that will enter Bali, there is a possibility of a 30 percent increase. So foreign tourist visits are expected to increase by around nine million tourists.

"Therefore, I will specifically monitor the readiness at Ngurah Rai to increase capacity. By the beginning of 2020, that will have already happened," Sumadi said.

Translator: Aji Cakti/Eliswan Azly
Editor: Bambang Purwanto
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