Estimated 4,000 passengers arrived in Bali on first reopening day

Passengers arrive on the first day of reopening for domestic flights after being temporarily closed due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic at Ngurah Rai International Airport, in Tuban, near Denpasar, Bali, on July 31. AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka via The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network

JAKARTA — An estimated 4,000 passengers reportedly arrived at I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport on the first day of Bali’s reopening to domestic tourists on Friday.

All seven business and 77 economy class passengers of the first plane that arrived from Jakarta to Bali at 10:15 a.m. local time on flight Garuda Indonesia GA402, which used the wide-body Airbus A330 plane, were given flower garlands by Bali Deputy Governor Cok Ace and airport officials.

“There’s been an increase [in passenger arrivals] this long weekend, although gradually and not directly significant,” state-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura I (AP I) cogeneral manager of commercial operations for Ngurah Rai airport, Rahmat Adil Indrawa, said as quoted by kompas.com.

He estimated that about 4,000 travelers had arrived at the airport on reopening day.

A representative of Airport Authority Office Area IV, Puguh Lukito, said Ngurah Rai airport served 28 flight departures and 28 arrivals on Friday. On Thursday, it recorded 29 flight arrivals with total passenger movement of 1,800 people and 30 flight departures with 2,200 passengers. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, it reported 34 flight arrivals with 1,700 passengers and 33 flight departures with 2,300 passengers.

During the period of July 26 to 30, the airport welcomed 17,757 domestic route passengers through 278 flights.  One week prior, July 19 to 23, it saw an increase of 17 percent for the number of passengers and 8 percent for the number of domestic route flights.

“The traffic movement of domestic route passengers has slowly shown good growth. As of July 30, we welcomed up to 73,875 passengers with a daily average of 2,463 people,” said Rahmat.

In all of June, there were only 17,861 passengers.

“We do have to emphasize that we continue to implement strict health protocols in accordance with the increasing number of passenger arrivals,” Rahmat added.

According to data on covid19.go.id, as of July 31, Bali has recorded 3,407 positive cases of COVID-19 with 2,876 recoveries and 48 deaths.