Issues:`Airport reaffirms unpopular policy'

Fri, 11/20/2009 1:05 PM  |  Readers Forum

The Ngurah Rai International Airport management has reiterated a flight policy that passengers transferring from international to domestic flights should conduct a series of procedures before boarding the second flight. Last week, airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I was rebuked by an upset passenger, who had boarded at Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan, heading to Jakarta, with a stopover at Ngurah Rai Airport for a transfer to a domestic flight.

The passenger complained about having to pay additional airport tax and conduct check-in procedures before moving to his Denpasar-Jakarta flight. The passenger sent a furious message to the newly installed Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi, complaining about what he described as "improper services" and even asked the minister to dismiss Angkasa Pura's director.

PT Angkasa Pura I general manager Heru Legowo said Friday that his company had already received similar complaints. "We need to clarify this to avoid further misinterpretations." The passenger apparently thought he had used a transit flight and could directly move to the next flight without paying additional airport tax and undergoing custom and immigration clearance procedures. (By Desy Nurhayati, Denpasar)

Your comments:

I flew international from Jakarta to Portland on Oct. 7, which required a transfer to a domestic LA - Portland flight. A complete security check was required before boarding the domestic flight, but no airport tax.

Not even the US$25 fee per checked baggage normally applied on domestic flights only (I had four of them). I think it's only logical not to pay airport tax and other extra payments since it was a continuing flight as compared to a purely domestic flight. Ngurah Rai can surely adopt such an approach.

Francius Suwono
Tigard, OR, US

Airports in any part of the world are the door and reflection of a country; mess it up and you'll have a bad first impression that will only lead you down a path that doesn't go toward the improvement of the Indonesian economy and reputation, just to mention a few. Too much talking is done, the action just seems to have taken an early retirement way before it has even started anything.

Paul R.
Jakarta

As usual, our Indonesian bureaucrats are showing how incompetent they are to visitors. It's like telling visitors that Indonesia and Bali are two separate countries. Just look at the Visit Indonesia tourism ads: you see more of Bali than Jakarta or anywhere else. It's also another scheme to milk more money from visitors. Enough said. "Welcome to Indonesia", everyone.

Keith
Jakarta

Why don't they look at the Jakarta airport and see the problems there? Also, why don't they fix the visa problems?

Peter Link
Jakarta

The problem is probably more on the inconvenience than the amount of airport tax. On flights with multiple legs, the first leg in the destination country is typically where you need to clear the immigration.

This is a common procedure in any country, so any reasonable people should not complain about this process. Now having said that, typically you do not need to pay an additional airport tax.

I don't even know if it is a requirement to pay this in rupiah but if this is the case, people who are in a hurry to get to the next flight can be increasingly nervous and impatient as they may not have cash in local currency yet.

If it is so important to get the additional airport tax (which for transfer flight, I don't think it should be in there to begin with), why can't they just include this in the ticket price and have the airline take care of the payment to Bali airport?

I'm sure this is done on all other airports. Also, it's not clear what exactly does the article mean by check in procedure.

If this means you need to clear security and go through general check in procedure, it's understandable that people can be very upset. People who needs to transfer to another flight do not have much time to spend dealing with this non sense.

Rev
Houston

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