Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport Receives 2 New Flights Ahead Of Christmas Holidays

DENPASAR - I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, Bali, received two new flights ahead of Christmas 2023 and New Year 2024 from local and international airlines.

The two airlines serve domestic routes connecting Bali with Kupang and international routes connecting Bali with Fuzhou, China.

General Manager of I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport Handy Heryudhitiawan said the addition of two new flights from Air Asia and Xiamen Airlines at the momentum of this year's end of the holiday was very appropriate, because flight traffic tends to increase at this time.

"The Christmas and New Year period is the seasoning peak and in this period Bali is one of the tourism destinations most attractive to domestic and international tourists. With the addition of these routes, we hope to further encourage increased flight traffic during that period," he said, Monday, December 18.

Ngurah Rai Airport estimates that the average number of domestic passengers in the Christmas and New Year periods will increase to 25 percent from normal days, from 28 thousand to 35 thousand per day.

Then, international passengers are predicted to increase by 7 percent from the daily average of 30 thousand to 32 thousand, so this momentum must be utilized properly, such as the two new flights that enter.

Handy said that Air Asia airline landed its new flight from Bali's I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport to Kupang's El Tari Airport (Bali-Kupang) with flight number QZ 632 on Saturday (16/12/2023) at 15.15 WITA using an Airbus A320 aircraft.

At that time, the plane was carrying 184 passengers, they then returned from Kupang to Bali with flight number QZ 633 on the same day carrying 163 passengers for regular flight every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Then, a new flight from Xiamen Airlines landed in Bali on Sunday (17/12/2023) with flight number MF 8657 on the Fuzhou-Bali route using a Boeing 737-800 Max aircraft, which carried 167 passengers and then returned with flight number MF 8658 carrying 177 passengers for regular flight every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.

Handy said with the addition of routes, it means that this year Ngurah Rai Airport has served 20 domestic routes with 11 airlines and 37 international routes with 37 airlines.

"We congratulate Indonesia Air Asia and Xiamen Airlines for increasing their newest route at Bali's I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport. With the increase in routes by each airline, we hope to improve Bali's connectivity with various domestic and foreign destinations. We also hope that this addition will have a positive impact on tourism growth in Bali, especially during the season of Christmas and New Year," he said.