New President Says North Bali Airport Will Make Island ‘New Hong Kong’

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North Bali Airpot is back on the cards by order of the President.

Only last week, top tourism officials in Bali spoke to reporters to suggest that the development was not an urgent project and one that should be sidelined.

Yet, during a visit to the province this weekend, President Prabowo Subianto not only recommitted to his election promise of making the longstanding plan a reality but that the development would see Bali become the new Hong Kong or Singapore of the region.

Dialogue regarding the North Bali Airport has been in and out of the headlines for nearly a decade now. Not many topics spark such intense debate as the North Bali Airport plan, perhaps only after traffic congestion and the rate of international investment in small coastal communities in Bali.

The project was formally shelved and taken off the National Strategic Project List by Joko Widodo in late 2022.

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The project as a whole was rejected once again by the leaders of the PDI-P, an ex-President of Indonesia, Megawati Soekarnoputri, in 2023 with the firmest of no’s citing concerns for communities who reside in the area of Buleleng Regency in Northwest Bali where to development would take place. 

During his presidential election campaign, Prabowo Subianto made an impassioned commitment to the people of Buleleng Regency that if elected, he would see the project finally come to fruition. Two of the major stumbling blocks in the project to date have been land acquisition and securing sufficient funding for the multi-billion rupiah development. 

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On Sunday, 3rd November, the new President visited Denpasar City as the first official visit to the province since his inauguration.

He was quick to follow up on his campaign promises and noted that the development of a second airport in Bali could help reduce traffic congestion and improve the quality of service at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport by offering more runway space on the island. 

President Subianto explained, “North Bali Airport as I have conveyed that I am committed, I want to build North Bali International Airport.”

@faizalmaulana_22 Salah satu tempat terindah saat landing 😍🛬 #Bali ♬ Landing di Bali – Faizal Maulana

He continued, “We will make Bali make the new Singapore, the new Hong Kong, where we will be the center of this region.”

He called on regional leaders in Bali to dare to think big and consider nothing to be impossible.

President Subianto added, “Indonesia must be prosperous, and Indonesia must be prosperous and fair; all Indonesians must enjoy prosperity, not just a few people, agree?”

In response to the statements issued by President Subianto, the Head of the Bali Tourism Office, Tjok Bagus Pemayun, told reporters that the project could help spread tourism more evenly throughout the province, though he was cautious about the prospect of getting the project up and running again in the immediate future.

He told reporters, “Of course, with this development, access will be divided. Maybe foreign tourists will lan there; domestic tourists will land at Ngurah Rai Airport; all that needs to be studied further.”

Pemayun did note, however, that the development of a second airport would help ease traffic congestion in the central south of the island since Ngurah Rai Airport feeds traffic directly toward Kuta, Legian, Seminyak, Canggu and Seseh to the west, Nusa Dua and Sanur to the east, Uluwatu, Kutuh and Ungasan to the south, and Ubud to the north. 

When Pemayun was asked about the impact a second airport would have on Bali overall, Pemayun shared that he feels positive about its capacity to redistribute the concentration of tourists throughout the island.

He shared, “Of course, tourists are looking for more accessibility…what is clear is that the airport would have a multiplier effect.”

Initial plans suggest that North Bali Airport would have the capacity to serve 32 million passengers annually. 

Pemayun concluded that the development of North Bali Airport would help prevent overtourism in the south of the island and reduce traffic jams across key resort areas.

He concluded, “The roads cannot be widened anymore, and vehicles continue to increase along with the number of tourist visits.”