Airlines That Add Flights On Nataru Holidays

Pesawat Air Asia. (Irfan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - As many as six national and international airlines have submitted 367 requests for additional flights at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport, Bali, during the 2019 Christmas and New Year 2020 holiday seasons.

"It was recorded that up to last Thursday, we had approved requests for an extra flight of 367 flights from six airlines, namely AirAsia, Garuda Indonesia, Malindo Air, Korean Air, Lion Air, and Citilink," said General Manager of PT Angkasa Pura I (Persero) Airport. International I Gusti Ngurah Rai, Bali, Herry AY Sikado, Friday 20 December.

Of the six airlines, AirAsia was listed as the airline that proposed the most additional flights with 135 flights, followed by Lion Air with 114 flights, Citilink with 56 flights, Garuda Indonesia with 46 flights, Malindo Air with 12 flights and Korean Air with four flights.

Herry Sikado said the route to and from Soekarno-Hatta Airport dominated with a total of 351 flights or more than 95 percent of the total extra flight applications.

"While the rest are routes to and from Kuala Lumpur with six flights, Brisbane with six flights and Incheon with four flights that can accommodate around 76 thousand passenger seats," he said.

When compared with the number of flight submissions at the 2018 Christmas and New Year Posts, in 2019 there was a quite drastic decline, reaching 108 percent.

During the implementation period of the 2018 Christmas Post and the New Year 2019, it was recorded that there were 765 extra flight applications that can accommodate around 145 thousand passenger seats.

"Indeed, at this time, requests for extra flights dropped quite drastically. However, we are still committed to overseeing one of the busy periods in flight traffic in Bali, so that airport service users can enjoy safe, secure and comfortable air travel, "Herry said.

Meanwhile, Head of the Regional IV Airport Authority Office, Elfi Ami, said that nationally there has indeed been a decrease in the number of aircraft passengers.

"The national prediction based on the current data is estimated that there will be a decline of around 8.4 percent on a national scale, but we are still optimistic that the growth in the number of aircraft and passengers in Bali will remain stable," he said.

Regarding the peak flow of passengers during the Christmas 2019 and New Year 2020 holiday seasons, he said that the peak flow of passengers is expected to occur on December 22, 2019 and back flow on January 5, 2020.

"At the peak of passenger flow on December 22, it is predicted that there will be as many as 74,611 passenger movements and 484 aircraft movements at Ngurah Rai Airport," he said.