Governor Koster said flight cancellations would not affect international routes to and from Bali

Denpasar (National Archipelagic Wire) - Bali Governor Wayan Koster confirmed that flight cancellations at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport due to the eruption of Mount Anak Krakatau would not disrupt international flight routes to and from Bali.

"When it comes to international flights to Bali, there is absolutely no disruption, it continues to run smoothly so there are no problems," said Koster after the Bali DPRD Plenary Session in Denpasar, Monday.

He explained that flight problems currently only hit domestic flights because the majority of passenger movements to Bali come from Soekarno-Hatta Airport which is temporarily closed.

The closure of Soekarno-Hatta Airport due to volcanic ash caused routes to and from Jakarta, as well as other regional flights connecting from Jakarta, to temporarily stop.

However, he ensured that the handling of potential affected passengers in Bali had been handled well by airport and airline managers.

"It has been handled by Angkasa Pura and then there is a ticket refund, and passengers really understand the situation because this is a natural event, they cannot return, so they add more days to their stay," said Governor Koster.

Because international flights were not affected, he believes that volcanic activity in the Sunda Strait has no impact on the tourism sector, in fact visits are still trending positively.

However, he did not deny that domestic tourists experienced a significant decline due to disruption of flight routes from Jakarta which had dominated arrivals at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport.

"In domestic terms, of course this is disrupted, the most flights to Bali are from Jakarta, this has been since yesterday but I haven't checked today, yesterday there was practically a significant decrease because the normal situation is around 12 to 16 thousand domestic people per day," he said.

Regarding the potential for diverting traffic to land transportation, the Bali Provincial Government sees that there are queue problems at the Ketapang-Gilimanuk Port.