SEAToday.com, Denpasar - I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, Bali, has added another connection to East Kalimantan via Balikpapan using Garuda Indonesia.

General Manager of PT Angkasa Pura Indonesia I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport Ahmad Syaugi Shahab in Denpasar, on Wednesday (11/20), said this route adds connection opportunities to the Nusantara (IKN).

“The opening of the Denpasar-Balikpapan route is a good opportunity to build connectivity to East Kalimantan as a destination to support the development of the IKN, and vice versa as a link to tourist destinations on the Island of the Gods,” he said.

It is known that this potential route was previously served by Citilink Indonesia, Air Asia and Lion Air, so Garuda Indonesia added access.

Syaugi said the Balikpapan route flight using Indonesia's original airline was the first time, later they will operate regularly every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

“With the addition of Garuda Indonesia, there are a total of 34 flights coming and going in a week,” he said.

The flight that helps access to IKN first took place on Monday (11/18) with a departure schedule at 12.05 Wita and an arrival schedule at 16.10 Wita.

On the inaugural flight, there were 138 passengers who departed using an airplane with flight number GA 481.

While on the arrival flight, I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport welcomed the Boeing 737-800NG aircraft with a water salute and carried 153 passengers from Balikpapan with flight number GA 480.

I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport noted that until now there have been 62 airlines operating with 12 airlines serving domestic routes and 42 airlines serving international routes.

While for a total of 62 routes, namely 22 domestic routes and 40 international routes.