VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Badung, Bali - Some 24,169,561 passengers were served at the I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali throughout the year of 2019, indicating an increase of 390,383 passengers or two percent compared to the same period in 2018. "We are very grateful to have achievements up to par with that of last year, even exceeding the number because when many other airports have decreased the number of passengers, our records still show a positive trend throughout 2019," said General Manager PT Angkasa Pura I of I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, Herry A.Y. Sikado when contacted from Mangupura, Wednesday.

Based on the data from the Air Traffic (LLAU) for the 2019 operational year, there were also 155,344 aircraft movements in and out of Bali via air routes.

Compared to 2018 with 162,623 aircraft movements, there had been a decrease in the number of aircraft movements of 7,289, or down by four percent.

Meanwhile, out of a total of 24 million passengers during 2019, international routes have once again outperformed domestic routes.

The comparison was recorded at 13.89 million passengers on international routes, while there were 10.28 million passengers on domestic flight routes with a proportion of 57 percent to 43 percent.

"The distribution of passengers based on the routes in 2019, repeated the 2018 record with the same percentage. The record reiterates that Bali's appeal remains strong," he said.

The record number of passengers during 2019 also reinforced the growth rate of passengers over the past five years, he continued.

The number of passengers served has continued to grow in the last five-year period. The highest growth rate occurred in 2016, with passenger growth of 2.87 million passengers or 16.8 percent compared with 2015.

On average, the annual average growth rate of Ngurah Rai Airport passengers over the past five years has reached 9 percent.

During the last five years, Ngurah Rai Airport has recorded a stable growth rate. However, the maximum capacity of the airport, which is at 24 million passengers which has been reached in 2019, Herry Sikado added.

With the projection of domestic and foreign tourists who will continue to come into the Island of the Gods, his office has conducted various studies related to the development plan of the Ngurah Rai airport.

At the moment, it is in the process of formulating an airport development master plan that will later reach a maximum capacity of 37.6 million passengers in 2026.

"For now, we have completed air infrastructure that aims to increase runway capacity to cater to aircraft movements per hour. It is called Rapid Exit Taxiway (RET)," he said.

By the end of January, he expected for the infrastructure to be operational.

"At the moment, our maximum runway capacity is at 32 aircraft movements per hour. With the operations of the RET, the runway's capacity can be increased every hour, which can certainly accelerate the movement of planes in the air," he said. (ANTARA)