Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport Has The Opportunity To Become A Cargo Hub For Industrial Estates

JAKARTA - I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Badung Regency, Bali, has a great opportunity to become a hub or one of the cargo centers that supplies imported export goods from industrial areas in the country.

"Bali has a fairly wide international flight network," said General Manager of Angkasa Pura I International Airport I Gusti Ngurah Rai Handy Heryudhitiawan at the International Cargo Terminal, Badung Regency, Bali, quoted from Antara, Friday, June 7.

Although currently, he said, there are no special aircraft transporting cargo cargo to serve regular direct flights in Bali, but as a global tourist destination, the Island of the Gods serves many commercial flights for passengers from a number of countries.

Currently, one of the busiest airports in Indonesia serves 19 domestic routes by 13 airlines and 33 international routes by 36 airlines.

That way, he observed that there is still great potential to fill the aircraft container with cargo cargo that needs to be maximized by business actors.

He noted that the average number of cargo at the airport per day reached 130-150 tons, both domestic and international cargo, beyond the amount of transaction cargo.

"That number does not include transhipment. If it is added, it is much bigger, much higher, it can beat other airports," he added.

Moreover, Bali has direct southern earth routes, namely to Australia and New Zealand, then the Middle East and countries in East Asia such as China, Japan, and South Korea, namely India, which is served by a fleet of jumbo and large-bodied aircraft.

This connectivity gives Bali the opportunity to become a cargo center for exports and imports.

Even several international airlines from the Middle East, including Etihad, also added new international flights in Bali, as well as several airlines from South Korea also planning to serve direct flights.

"This Bali Airport is complete, more integrated," he added.

Meanwhile, one of the representatives of international airlines serving cargo in Bali, Lahenda Aprilian, admitted that his party is taking advantage of multimodal services that provide space for imported export goods from Surabaya to be transported through Bali, because more international flight routes are available on the Island of the Gods.

He recorded that from January to May 2024, 64 tons of goods from Surabaya had been exported from Bali Airport to a number of countries, including garment products.

That number is almost close to achieving during 2023 which reached a total of 79 tons.

He is also optimistic that he can serve other regions in Indonesia after the full implementation of the export digital Single Submission (SSm) system, one-door system and multimodal services by Customs.