Lombok airport to operate ‘24 hours a day’, adds extra flights

Foreign tourists sleep on the floor as they wait to depart from the Praya Lombok International Airport on the West Nusa Tenggara province on August 6, 2018. AFP

DENPASAR, Indonesia — With an exodus of visitors rushing to leave Lombok Island following a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that hit West Nusa Tenggara on Sunday evening, Lombok International Airport has added extra flights.

Lombok International Airport general manager I Gusti Ngurah Ardita said the extra flights included three Lion Air flights to Bali, Surabaya in East Java and Jakarta and a Garuda Indonesia flight to Bali’s I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport. The four extra flights can accommodate up to 770 passengers. Meanwhile, Air Asia will operate an extra flight from Lombok to Kuala Lumpur, scheduled for Tuesday.

Ardita said the airport management also decided to begin temporarily operating 24 hours a day starting Monday..

“We expect a surge in the number of passengers who want to leave, so [operating 24 hours a day] allows airlines to add extra flights,” he said.

Meanwhile, Arie Ahsanurrohim, the head of the communications and legal division at state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I’s Bali airport branch, said the Bali airport had not seen an increase in the number of passengers leaving the island, even though the island was also affected by the quake.

“There are no extra flights [bound from Bali]. Everything resumed as normal here,” he said.