Bali Airport Busier By The Day As Destination Grows In Popularity

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Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport is one of the busiest airports in Indonesia.

As the gateway to the country’s leading tourist destination, Bali Airport welcomes millions of passengers every year.

Travel data shows that Bali Airport is serving even more international flight routes than this time last year.

In fact, this is the best year since the pandemic began in March 2020.

Comparative travel data shows that in January 2020, over 1.2 million tourists arrived in Bali. In 2021, just 126,000 people passed through the airport, and in January 2024, 927,750 people passed through I Gusti Ngurah Rai International.

Bali is edging ever closer to its pre-pandemic norm. While many Bali lovers may feel that Bali feels busier than before the pandemic, in reality, there are still fewer tourists milling around the island than before lockdowns began. 

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In January, the most frequent international arrivals were from Malaysia, taking up 16% of all arrivals in Bali, closely followed by Australians making up 13% of arrivals, with Singaporeans coming in third, reaching 9% of all international arrivals.

As is to be expected, 83.15% of foreign tourists arrived in Indonesia by plane, 14.03% via sea, and 2.83 by land borders.

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One (kind of) cool static revealed by the Central Statistic Agency in the amount of baggage processed by Bali Airport. It seems that Bali lovers don’t exactly travel light.

The amount of baggage and goods transported from I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport in January 2024 was recorded at 8,549 tons, an increase of 7.81% compared to the amount of baggage and goods transported in December 2023. 

The most baggage and goods sent via international flights from Bali were sent to Australia, namely 2,651 tons, followed by Singapore 1,391 tons, Qatar 744 tons, UAE 699 tons, and Malaysia 648 tons.

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What is clear is that January 2024 has been the busiest January in Bali for the last four years despite it being the beginning of the low season.

This is welcome news for Bali, a destination that is still trying to recover from losses incurred by the pandemic. 

What the travel data also shows is a change in the way in which tourists are traveling. Some tourists are staying for longer, others for less time.

On average, international tourists to Indonesia, arriving in January 2024, stayed for 7.93 nights. When this data is broken down by travel demographic, it’s clear that tourists from ASEAN nations stay on average three nights, normally part of a long weekend, and tourists from Africa stay upwards of 14 nights.

Bali is on a mission to attract higher-quality tourists who stay longer and spend more. As a country, Indonesia is a destination that tourists can return to time and time again and only just scratch the surface. The same can easily be said for Bali.

Though the island is small, there is so much to discover. This year, more than ever, tourism officials want to see tourists exploring more of what the island has to offer.

Tourists can find a whole new side of Bali way from the resorts of the south if they venture to destinations further north, like Munduk and Lovina, Amed and Tulamben in the east, and Menjangan in the west. 

While I Gusti Ngurah Rai edges ever closer to its pre-pandemic norm, political leaders want to put the discussion about the creation of a North Bali Airport back on the table.

Plans that were first shared in 2015 show that the airport would have the capacity to serve 32 million passengers annually, way beyond the current capacity of I Gusti Ngurah Rai International.

It would quickly become Indonesia’s second biggest airport, second only to Soekarno-Hatta International in Jakarta.