Christmas-New Year Holidays, Passengers At Ngurah Rai Airport Are Predicted To Reach 141 People

Bali/DOK Airport I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport Public Relations Airport

DENPASAR - I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport has started to open the 2023 Christmas and 2024 New Year Air Transport Integrated Command Posts to anticipate a surge in passengers which is predicted to be higher than usual days.

"We are ready to serve a surge in passengers during the Christmas and New Year periods, where the implementation of the post starts today December 19, 2023 to January 3, 2024 or lasts for 16 days," said General Manager of I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport Handy Heryudhitiawan, Tuesday, December 19.

"This year we recorded an increase in passenger traffic which is getting better than the performance of the previous year. So that in the Nataru period, we predict that there will be a surge in the number of passengers, which also indicates the recovery of operational performance at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport," he continued.

In the implementation of the Christmas and New Year's Command Posts, 1,367 airport personnel were prepared, and in addition to integrated posts placed in domestic and international terminals, there were also security posts involving elements of the TNI and Polri.

All of this preparation was made because Handy estimates that there will be an increase in passengers by 20 percent at the end of this year's momentum compared to the previous year, from 909,143 to 1,089,048 passengers.

From the records of the Ministry of Transportation, it is also seen that until now the route to Bali via Soekarno Hatta Airport has become the main domestic destination with tickets sold for around 65,000 tickets, plus the potential for spikes due to coinciding with school holidays and collective leave.

Currently, the increase in the number of daily passengers at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport has been seen, where from January to November, an average of 58 thousand passengers are served per day, while during December alone the average number of passengers reaches 60 thousand or an increase of 3.4 percent.

"Meanwhile, aircraft movements in the Christmas and New Year periods are also expected to increase by 43 percent, from 6,079 aircraft movements in 2022 to 8,674 movements in 2023. Based on operational performance data from I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport until December, there are 18 scheduled domestic routes served by 11 airlines and 29 international scheduled routes served by 34 airlines," said Handy.

So far they predict that the peak passenger density in the Christmas comments will occur on December 22, 2023 with 72,754 passengers with 408 aircraft movements.

The peak number of passengers in the new year period is predicted to occur on January 2, 2024, namely 69,237 passengers with 392 aircraft movements.

According to Handy, these passengers will be dominated by arriving passengers, both domestically and internationally, according to him, this is the annual cycle they see every time they open a post.

The potential for a surge in airport users was also conveyed by the Head of the Regional Airport Authority IV Agustinus Budi Hartono, who at the opening of the post acted as an apple coach.

According to him, what must be anticipated from the surge in passengers is extreme weather, wind and potential hazard natural disasters; security and order threats; fleet readiness and ground handling; potential delays and cancel; and technical matters that interfere with flight safety and security such as potential kites, lasers and fireworks that interfere with flight KKOP and traffic to and from airports.

"We have always been at the forefront of the implementation of safety, security and service so that passengers always feel safe, safe and comfortable. For this Christmas and New Year period, rampchecks for aircraft will be carried out 95 times in the Bali area and 210 times in the location of Lombok, Kupang and Labuan Bajo where everything is connected to Bali's destination," said Agustinus.