Denpasar, Bali (Antara Bali) - The International I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport in Bali served 3,081 domestic flight departures in June 2015, a decrease of 5.32 percent from 3,254 flights recorded in May 2015.
During the same period, the number of domestic passengers also dropped to 356,184, or a decrease of 5.17 percent from 375,617 passengers in the previous month," Head of the Bali Central Bureau of Statistics Panusunan Siregar stated here on Monday.
The domestic flights operated from Bali to five main destinations: the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta (with 1,097 flights), the Juanda Airport in Surabaya (441 flights), the Lombok Praya Airport in West Nusa Tenggara (216), Yogyakarta's airport (199), and Bandung (180), among others.
The Ngurah Rai airport has been forced to temporarily shut down its operations several times due to the eruption of Mount Raung located in East Java Province.
Moreover, the management of I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport incurred losses amounting to US$40 thousand per day due to Mount Raung's eruption, which frequently forced temporary closures of the airport, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya pointed out recently.
The I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali has been named the world's third-best among the 30 airports, with a passenger capacity of 15-25 million per year, according to the Airports Council International (ACI). (WDY)
