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‘Much work to do’ as Bali airport ranks among world’s worst for punctuality
A minister had defended I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport but an expert says the government must ensure smooth access to Bali after the airport was ranked among the worst in the world for on-time performance.
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Airport officers inspect an aircraft at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali in 2018. (The Jakarta Post/Zul Trio Anggono)
A
n aviation expert has urged the government to ensure smooth access to Bali, as the island’s key airport, ranked among the worst in the world for punctuality, adds to the traffic woes of the popular holiday destination.
I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport, the principal gateway to Bali for tourists, occupied place 189 of 194 in management firm AirHelp’s global ranking of airports for their on-time performance, published last month.
Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi acknowledged the ranking but downplayed its significance: “Just because it says something’s bad, doesn’t mean that it’s bad.”
“I’m a conservative person, so [we need to] just use the money efficiently. The important thing is that security and safety are maintained, not that it looks pretty,” Budi said on Sunday, as quoted by Tribunnews.
With Jakarta’s Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport and Syamsudin Noor International Airport in Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan, two more Indonesian airports landed among the bottom 10 of the performance rating released on Dec. 5.
Aviation expert Gerry Soetjatman, speaking to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday, named the prevalence of single-runway operations at most Indonesian airports, as well as the high number of aircraft movements, as contributing factors.
“Ngurah Rai is a very busy airport with heavy [flight] traffic, so we can take this as a reminder that the government still has much work to do regarding its airports,” Gerry said, emphasizing the need to improve both the operations and accessibility of airports.
