Bali Airport is one of the busiest airports in Indonesia. As the island is in the midst of the tourist high season, officials have announced that they are committed to ensuring travelers have a smooth journey through I Gusti Ngurah Rai International.
Officials from Bali Airport have spoken to the media about their commitment to ensuring the process of getting through the airport is quick and simple.
This will also include upgrades to equipment across the immigration gates.
The airport was visited this week by the Director General of Immigration at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia, Silmy Karim, who also shared his observations.
Director General Karim told the press that the auto gates will be installed at immigration to help speed up the processing times.
“From the side of the crossing at Immigration Checkpoint where the crossing is at Ngurah Rai. Later we will upgrade equipment such as automated so that later it will also make it easier to speed crossings,” This, he says, will help reduce queue times to less than 20 minutes, even at rush hour.
The Director General said that he is always kept in the loop about what is happening at Bali’s International Airport, noting, “I always monitor how the queue is at Ngurah Rai.”
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The announcement comes as it is confirmed that more of the world’s largest commercial airplanes will be landing in Bali on a weekly basis.
Karim explained, “There is also interesting information that there will be more Airbus A380s, which are currently operating at Ngurah Rai for about two weeks every day, both for Emirates and other airlines. This means that there are aircraft with a large capacity here.”
The Director General of Immigration was also in Bali to attend the laying of the first stone for the new immigration offices in Singaraja.
The new offices will oversee immigration matters for Buleleng Regency, Karangasem Regency, and Jimbaran Regency, serving 2,500 foreigners who reside in these areas and, of course, the thousands of tourists who visit these beautiful areas of the island too.
During his press conference, Karim also revealed that the cooperation between authorities in Bali is starting to help curb bad behavior by tourists on the island.
With another surge of arrivals on the cards, Bali Airport must continue to keep up with the increased volume of tourists who will need processing at immigration if the island is to remain as popular as it is now.
Generally speaking, getting through Bali Airport is a pretty quick and efficient process.
However, every year, there are anecdotal reports of tourists left queueing for upwards of an hour, especially during the high season and Christmas and New Year holidays.
In light of the increased volume of passengers at Bali Airport, officials have been calling on tourists to arrive extra early for their flights.
The new automated gates will make it quicker for tourists to arrive in Bali, but an issue that sometimes gets overlooked is the time it takes to check in and drop bags during the high season.
Tourists are being urged to leave extra time to drive to the airport, especially as the island continues to tackle the issue of traffic congestion.
Most international flights require passengers to arrive 2 hours before take-off; however, it is always advisable to leave a little extra leeway, especially during high season and during rush hour.
Earlier this month, the Bali Airport’s General Manager Handy Heryudhitiawan said, “Ngurah Rai Airport always prioritizes the convenience, security, and safety of airport service users.”
He called on tourists to be generous with their time management, especially as the island is experiencing unseasonably heavy rains at the moment too.
Bali Airport is currently serving an average of 65,000 passengers a day across the domestic and international terminals.
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Alfred
Thursday 27th of July 2023
Fly into Surabaya. Breeze through immigration, get your bags in ten minutes and spend a night. Visit old china town. Take the old train to Banyuwangi and experience real Indonesia. Hire a car the rest of the way and head to the north, spend a few nights in Lovina. Then head down south. Done it numerous times, wonderful experience.
BaliDuck
Monday 24th of July 2023
This is the purpose of life. Waiting in the airport or being stuck in the Balinese traffic hell. Who cares.
Ray
Sunday 23rd of July 2023
Blah,blah,blah.Believe it when I see it.2 years ago they were going to have every station open, what happened, nothing. These guys at the top are dreamers. When he says he checks regularly, is the once a year?
Exp
Monday 24th of July 2023
@Ray, Crazy right. Bali receive 50% of the international tourists for Indonesia -- and they are not able to receive tourists (like families with smaller children on a tiering long haul trip) in a better manner.
Each counter need to be replaced with counters handing 4 at a time and put some people on the job. Return some of the VoA fee in form of service!
Maxine
Saturday 22nd of July 2023
Through VOA & immigration in 20 minutes - but we waited over 40 minutes for our bags and there was only 2 arriving flights - I hope they can do something about baggage!
Penny
Sunday 23rd of July 2023
@Maxine, Agreed! I was there two weeks ago with a midnight arrival. Immigration was quick, but we waited over an hour for bags and moved carousels several times. Weirdly, there was a plane-load of bags circling on our carousel for ~40mins and those passengers were nowhere to be seen. They still had not arrived by the time our luggage appeared, leading to a very packed carousel of luggage!
My flight had a lot of young children and babies on it due to the school holidays. It was a bit tortuous waiting that long for bags at such a late/early hour.
Penny
Sunday 23rd of July 2023
@Maxine,
Firechef
Sunday 23rd of July 2023
@Maxine, It's called lazy baggage handlers.
Marie Mullin
Saturday 22nd of July 2023
As a frequent traveler in and out of Bali they badly need to concentrate on getting bags on the carousels in a timely manner. Getting the carousel number right on the screen to match the actual - instead of three different numbers and having visitors running from each carousel trying to find their luggage and also clean the carousels
And most importantly get the cleaning to a higher standard. The new carpet in the walkways is stained everywhere and dirty . the toilets are dirty and don't flush and the hand basins are grimy. The overall cleanliness of the terminal Buildings lack decent high maintenance cleaning
Concentrate on those items to lift the overall look of the terminal. Visit Singapore and get some ideas of how clean a terminal should look
Firechef
Sunday 23rd of July 2023
@Marie Mullin, what do you expect? Same filth inside as outside. A first timer to Bali sees that and I'm sure that they want to turn around and leave. Not a good first impression of the so called Island of the gods!
Exp
Sunday 23rd of July 2023
@Marie Mullin, Quote "The new carpet in the walkways is stained everywhere and dirty. The toilets are dirty and don’t flush and the hand basins are grimy. The overall cleanliness of the terminal Buildings lack decent high maintenance cleaning"
Yes this is how Indonesia build and run all their new airports: Poor quality, poor construction and poor maintenance. Even the old Soekarno Hatta terminal hold up better. This is what rampant corruption lead to.
The funny thing is that examples of the opposite approach can be found: Look at the old Plaza Senayan mall in Jakarta or Plaza Indonesia: Great quality build and good maintenance and cleaning. So it can be done.