Immigration denies over five-hour lineup at Ngurah Rai Airport

Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Bali Immigration denied that a lineup of nearly five hours occurred at the immigration check area of Ngurah Rai International Airport.

Head of the Immigration Office at the Ngurah Rai Checkpoint, Bali, Sugito, tendered the clarification on Monday in response to the blog article "Bali Airport Has Become A Nightmare With Up To Five Hours Immigration Lineups!" by Sebastian Powell, published on Saturday, July 29.

"He (Sebastian Powell) arrived on Friday, July 29, 2022, from Bangkok, Thailand, and landed at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport at 2:43 p.m. local time. He then (underwent) the health document (check procedure) and went to the BRI counter to obtain a Visa on Arrival (VOA)," Sugito expounded.

From data of the immigration crossing application, Sugito revealed that Powell underwent an immigration examination at 3:47 p.m. local time, so the total time taken, starting from disembarking the plane, health inspection, and VOA payment, to completing the immigration check took around 54 minutes.

"Along with the expansion of immigration policies in line with the increase in the number of countries subject to Visa on Arrival (VOA) and the granting of (visa exemption facility) for countries in the Southeast Asian region, the number of flights and the volume of passenger arrivals to Bali have increased," Sugito stated.

Thus, the increase in the number of flights has made international flight schedules quite hectic.

"This certainly has the potential to cause overcrowding in the arrival area during peak hours," he stated.

However, Sugito emphasized that despite the likelihood of overcrowding in the Ngurah Rai Airport arrival area, the immigration checks can continue to run smoothly.

"We have taken anticipatory steps to handle the potential of overcrowding of passengers during peak hours by increasing the number of officers. With 25 counters in the arrival area, we can complete the inspection of 1,500 passengers per hour," he remarked.