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Indonesian Ministers Find Bali’s Airport in Sad Shape
Made Arya | November 16, 2009

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Valkyrie
5:31am Nov 17, 2009

Problem is our VIPs DO NOT use the facilities afforded to the general public/tourists. Thus they're blind to the fact that it's becoming a "dump."

It's the same for the traffic snarls we encounter everyday which many of them DO NOT.


rigsby100
9:58pm Nov 16, 2009

Not before time that someone should sort out Bali Airport [its a mess]

Long queues at both immigration areas, visa on arrival and Residents/kitas . Stressful custom officers who go to great lengths to find an extra bottle of booze in your bag so that you can be taken to the back room [wink wink] Customer relations about the same as Dharan Airport in Saudi in the 1980s.

Tourists would be much happier If the visa charges were included in the ticket price as in Thailand etc instead of forking out 40usd per person in the airport.

Wake up Bali ,the way this airport is run is not a good advert for this beautiful island. Yes we dont need dozens of shops selling woodcarvings and top draw gifts, Yes we do need more comfortable areas to wait for your flight, Yes clean toilets that dont smell like public lavatories in the 1960s .

Shouldn't the Bali Tourist Organisation and the Governor Made Pastika kick someones backside into sorting the place out soon.


Jeanne Hachette
3:57am Nov 16, 2009

An easy way to fix the queue at the visa on arrival is to get free tourist visa like in Thailand or Malaysia.

Go to KL, 3 months tourist visa, cost : 0 ringgit.

Indonesian airports looks like African ones sometimes and the toilets need to be cleaned with a steam gun.

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Denpasar. Long visa lines, broken computers, filthy bathrooms and leaky roofs. Such was the situation at Bali’s international airport on Sunday during a snap inspection by two cabinet ministers.

The woeful state of Ngurah Rai International Airport is threatening to become a national embarrassment and a liability for the nation’s top tourism destination. And some tourists gave an earful to Tourism Minister Jero Wacik and Patrialis Akbar, the minister of law and human rights, during their surprise visit.

“I heard some [immigration] officers say to the minister that it only takes 45 seconds to issue a visa on arrival. But I queued for 15 minutes just now,” said one Australian tourist named Lizza.

It was easy to see why. Six of the 25 visa on arrival counters at the international arrivals hall were closed because their computers were broken, officials said.

Patrialis and Wacik witnessed first-hand the long queues. “We want all the counters to be well-functioning and manned by officers. Tourists should be in their [taxi] cabs within 15 minutes if we have good service,” they said.

One Indonesian tourist told the ministers the domestic terminal had its own problems, including leaky roofs as the air-conditioners dripped water, dirty entrance and walls in the toilets, and many broken luggage trolleys.

Just two years ago, Ngurah Rai was named the country’s best airport by the Ministry of Transportation. But last week, the airport’s operator said it could no longer handle the huge volume of travelers, 45 percent of who are domestic travelers. It processes more than nine million passengers a year.

Patrialis said the surprise inspection was part of his ministry’s 100-day program to improve airport immigration services. There were many complaints about Ngurah Rai, he said. “Do not let the tourists down. We must give our best service,” Patrialis said.

Wacik also suggested limiting the shops at Ngurah Rai, because it is not a transit airport. “Ngurah Rai is not like Changi in Singapore. If the tourists want to shop, let them shop in Sukawati [handicraft] market instead,” he said.