Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport Receives Hundreds Of Applications For Extra Christmas-New Year Holiday Flights

DENPASAR - General Manager of I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport Handy Heryudhitiawan said his party received hundreds of proposals for extra flights or additional flights from airlines for Christmas and New Year.

A total of 605 submissions from airlines have entered, consisting of an additional 302 arrival flights and 303 departure flights or a total seat that will be available can reach 110,294 seats, said Handy.

"The nature is the submission, we will evaluate it with the availability of the requested slots and schedules. For domestic areas, there are eight airlines that apply with destinations in Jakarta, Surabaya, Bima, Solo, Dili, Lombok, Tambolaka, Labuan Bajo, and Makassar. Meanwhile, internationally, they are proposed by one airline with Singapore destinations," he said, Thursday, December 14.

Handy said Nataru momentum is one of the periods where Ngurah Rai Airport will be crowded with service users. In general, there will be an increase in the number of passengers so that it is accompanied by an increase in aircraft movements.

From here, the airport has begun to project the number of passengers during Christmas-New Year, where this year it is predicted that 1,089,048 passengers will be served or an increase of 20 percent compared to the previous year, namely 909,143 passengers.

The average number of domestic passengers in the Nataru period is predicted to be 35 thousand passengers per day or is estimated to increase by 25 percent compared to normal time of 28 thousand passengers. Meanwhile, for the daily average of international passengers, it is estimated that there are 32 thousand passengers or 7 percent above the daily average of international passengers (normal times) of 30 thousand people per day," said Handy.

If you reflect on the recent movement and ticket bookings to date, the peak movement of I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport passengers is predicted to occur on December 22, 2023 with 72,754 passengers and 408 aircraft movements.

Meanwhile, the peak number of passengers in the new year period occurred on January 2, 2024 with 69,237 passengers and 392 aircraft movements.

To anticipate the surge in passengers during Christmas-New Year, Ngurah Rai Airport will open the Nataru Command Post from 19 December-3 January 2024. This date was chosen because they saw an increase in arrivals starting December 21, 2023.

"The consideration is that school children's holidays have started so that it is likely that someone will take early leave to avoid overcrowding ahead of the Christmas holiday. If on normal operational days on average we serve 30 thousand passengers, at the beginning of the Nataru Command Post we predict it can reach 35 to 40 thousand passengers. arrival, "said Handy.

Anticipation through the construction of the Christmas-New Year Command Post is carried out to see data from the Ministry of Transportation which states that Bali is still the main destination, such as the route from Soekarno Hatta Airport with tickets sold based on the highest number of domestic passengers, which is around 65,000 tickets.

In addition to the Christmas-New Year Poko, for 16 days a security post was also built at the vehicle entrance area which will involve the TNI and Polri, as a commitment from all parties to provide services.

Handy also admitted that he had confirmed that all airport facilities were in prime condition. This is evidenced through the results of a team inspection at the Ministry of Transportation which states that I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport is ready for the implementation of Nataru transportation.