Island hospitality: Tourism and Culture Minister Jero Wacik (right), and Justice and Human Rights Minister Patrialis Akbar (second right) talk to tourists at Ngurah Rai International Airport, Denpasar, Bali, on Sunday. The government promised to improve services for foreign tourists at the airport. JP/Ni Komang Erviani
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.
In fact, Heru underlined, the passenger had used a transfer flight, which has different procedures to that of transit flights.
“In transfer flights, passenger should conduct another security check, customs clearance, and pay another airport tax. Passengers also use different aircrafts. While in transit flight, passengers use the same aircraft and they don’t need to conduct such procedures.”
In this particular case, he went on, the passenger used an international flight from Tokyo to Denpasar, and continued with domestic flight serving Denpasar-Jakarta route. Both flights belong to the Garuda Indonesia carrier.
“Transferring between international to domestic flights requires passengers to undergo such procedures, especially as we withdrew the mixed flight policy in May,” said I Wayan Sudiarta, Garuda Indonesia’s station manager for Bali.
He added that there was not yet a direct flight from Tokyo to Jakarta.
“The direct flight is only from Tokyo to Denpasar.”
To improve services, Angkasa Pura will expand the airport’s domestic and international terminals, as well as supporting facilities.
The Rp 1.6-trillion expansion project is scheduled to commence in January next year after being delayed for months, and is expected to finish within 30 months.
The 15,000-square meter domestic terminal will be expanded into 120,000-square meter international terminal, said Heru Legowo.
“The domestic terminal has been overcrowded. It only has a capacity of 1.5 million passengers per year, but now we have had around 4.5 million passengers per year.”
He said the expansion would allow the airport to accomodate around 20 million passengers per year, from around the current nine million passengers per year.
The airport operator also asked Bali administration to improve access around the airport to overcome traffic congestion.
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