Bali’s airport, I Gusti Ngurah Rai International will be closed for 24 hours in line with the Balinese Hindu New Year, Nyepi.
Every year as Balinese Hindus power down, stay inside, keep noise to a minimum, and now even stay off their mobile data this time around, the airport also takes a break from activity with no flights coming in or out of Bali for a 24-hour period.
But just in case there’s some random emergency, 368 personnel will be on standby at the island’s airport, during the shutdown, to be ready for anything for the duration of the holiday, from 6am on March 17 to 6am on March 18.
“We are ready in anticipation of an emergency landing, a technical landing, or medical evacuation,” the airport’s general manager, Yanus Suprayogi said on Wednesday afternoon, as quoted by Tribun Bali.
The GM explained that in addition to Airnav officers, personnel from immigration, customs, the Air Force, airport police, and airline and ground handling will be present.
Based on current flight scheduling, Garuda Indonesia GA897 from Guangzhou, China and Garuda Indonesia GA7049 from Lombok will be the first flights to land after the Day of Silence shutdown.
While the first outbound flights will be AirAsia QZ550 to KL and GA401 to Cengkareng.
