As Bali stands firm as Indonesia’s leading tourist destination, data reveals that I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport was the busiest airport for the state-owned enterprise Angkasa Pura I for the first half of 2023.
I Gusti Ngurah Rai International is the only commercial airport in Bali and has served over 9 million passenger movements since the start of the year.
Bali Airport is one of the busiest airport in Indonesia, both in terms of number of passengers and the number of aircraft movements.
Earlier this year, government officials and tourism stakeholders were calling on the aviation sector to increase flight availability to the island, and the work appears to be paying off.
During the first half of 2023, I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport served 9,744,321 passenger movements.
Passenger movements in the data are described as single movements across both domestic and international flights, inbound and outbound travel.
This means that some travelers would have been counted twice if they flew in and out of Bali between the 1st of January and the end of June 2023.
Nevertheless, over 9.5 million passenger movements served by Ngurah Rai International is an impressive feat.
In fact, the data shows a 127% increase in passenger movement compared to the same period in 2022.
Naturally, this figure was always going to be somewhat higher, given that international borders did not open post-lockdown until February 2022. That being said, a 127% increase is remarkable.
For tourism leaders and tourists themselves, perhaps the most promising data shows the number of flight movements during the first half of the year.
Bali lovers have been calling for more flight availability from strategic locations. Many Bali lovers across Australia, the island’s most frequent visitors, have been calling for more flight availability from cities like Adelaide, Perth, and the Gold Coast.
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I Gusti Ngurah Rai International, has seen a 103% increase in aircraft movement so far this year. The airport has seen 64,648 aircraft movements by the end of June, which averages around 355 flights per day.
Speaking to reporters, the Main Director of PT Angkasa Pura I, the state-owned enterprise responsible for operations at Bali Airport, Faik Fahmi, announced the news.
Fahmi said, “Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport is also the Angkasa Pura I airport which recorded the highest passenger growth from the 15 airports that we managed in the first semester of 2023.”
Fahmi added, “In the first semester of 2023, Bali I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport also recorded a very significant growth in the number of international route passenger movements, namely as many as 5.1 million passengers compared to 752 thousand passengers in semester 1 of 2022.”
The second and third busiest airports managed by PT Angkasa Pura I were Juanda Airport in Surabaya and Sultan Hasanuddin Airport in Makassar.
Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport is managed by PT Angkasa Pura II, the state-owned enterprise which is also responsible for the smooth running of a total of twenty airports across Indonesia.
As Bali is in the midst of the high season, tourists are being used to leave extra time to get to the airport and to pass through luggage check-in and immigration.
In early July, the General Manager of Bali Airport, Handy Heryudhitiawan, called on tourists to leave extra time to travel to the airport due to unseasonable weather and potential traffic jams.
Tourists have also taken to social media to remind fellow travelers to leave plenty of time to get through luggage check-in and immigration at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport.
While immigration officials and airport management have confirmed they will continue to do all they can to make the process as efficient and comfortable as possible, at some times of the day, getting through Bali Airport can take longer than initially expected.
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Mr Bear Snr
Wednesday 2nd of August 2023
Domestik flights are given preferential landing because of low fuel levels to save weight/money. Then all the backed up international flights land and flood immigration. Made worse by the outbound flights returning later because of late check-ins on outbound flights delaying departures up to 45 mins, AAsia QZ534!
George
Monday 7th of August 2023
@Exp, Good one. I particularly enjoyed watching the first A-380 arrive here on flight radar 24. They made him hold for twenty minutes over west Bali before he could land. How absurd.
Exp
Thursday 3rd of August 2023
@Mr Bear Snr, Quote "Domestik flights are given preferential landing because of low fuel levels to save weight/money."
Yes, we remember Lion Air flight 904 landing short of the Bali airport runway in 2013. Ended up floating in shallow water and by a miracle all onboard survived. So probably wise letting the locals land with priority while the more seasoned international captains hold back a bit.
Wayan Bo
Wednesday 2nd of August 2023
Anyway many female domestic tourists are happy to come to Bali and undress hijabs. - In Islamic Republic of Iran if females don’t wear hijab as required will be jailed for 15 years by new law, fine will be about US $ 5.5k - Until June this year in Thailand arrived around 800k tourists from Russian Federation only, mostly in Phuket.
Exp
Wednesday 2nd of August 2023
If you try to make a photo of the enormous immigration lines you will be accosted by persons insisting on inspecting handphone and delete any photos. They will not identify themselves so watch out. Only "official" photos are apparently allowed.
Immigration should be worried about their image as 3 Bali immigration officials was recently arrested for human trafficking preying on poor people travelling to Cambodia to sell their kidneys for 200 Juta. No joke. Just google.
Randy
Thursday 3rd of August 2023
@Exp, the human organ trafficking is old news. What’s your point? Any airports in the world do NOT allow photography inside a government facility. Only a entitled moron would probably do that to prove something.