Anyone who has been to Bali is probably like me and loves the approach over the Kuta Reef, onto the runway at Ngurah Rai. This airport saw Bali go from a quiet surfing location to a $4 billion dollar a year tourist industry. The problem is the airport needs to be bigger to handle the larger jets coming onto the market and there is not any free space in the Tuban area.
BaliDiscovery reports that the Regent of Jembrana, the western district, that includes Negara, has put his district forward as a possible location for a new International airport. If you look at a map of Bali, you will notice how close the coastal road is to the ocean. This is because in many cases the elevation rises steeply. In the case of Jembrana, there is a chunk of flat land that lies between the road and the ocean, ideal for an airport.
My concerns are the distance from the main tourist areas. It take 3 hours to get to Negara from Kuta. I reckon they should put the airport in the center of the Bukit. No one lives there and its close to Kuta / Nusa Dua. Can they build and airport on limestone?
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Wouldn’t traffic be a nightmare coming in from that western side?
Couldn’t they reclaim land from the surrounding sea? It appears that they already partly done this for the existing airport. Your suggestion of moving the airport to the middle of Bukit will add another 10 to 15 minutes to people who like areas to the north of Kuta eg Ubud and further north. The travel time is already long enough from the airport to these areas.
A new international airport in Jembrana would be an excellent way to spread Bali’s tourism to other parts of the island. The area around Kuta is already developed and will always be a major part of Bali’s tourism industry, but has lost much of its natural appeal. Spreading tourism to the west would create many more jobs for the Balinese people and reduce the congestion in the Denpasar regency. Aside from this it would be a way to start over and do things right. The current tourist area has left very little
of Bali’s natural beauty and the roads were not built to accomodate cars and SUVs. The roads in Negara are already more suitable for tourism and the area is much more beautiful, but very few tourists ever venture to the west coast and its a shame. If a toll road was built for this airport the drive wouldn’t be any trouble and would give people the chance to see what Kuta used to look like. Families outside the tourist area in Bali watch their young ones leave home at a young age to help make money. Spread the wealth, spread the tourism and spread out the traffic.
It would be a real shame to move the airport so far away-I certainly would not want a three hour overland journey after a flight from Aus–what a waste of precious holiday time.
Not only is it a lovely view flying into bali but it is so beautiful to sit on the beach and watch planes taking off and landing.
As for building an airport on limestone I doubt it but any sort of land can be reinforced,changed and defined.
Cheers laura