Airport ready yet?

Any news on when the airport will be ready? I was in Lombok last September/October and it looked almost finished. Any progress??


Renae

At a guess I would say at least another year and then some time after that before any new international flights start. No progress yet on even buying the land for the bypass road let alone building it. This wet season will see if any solution has been found for the flooded runways - seeing as the airport is built on a large flood plain that is underwater during the wet season it will be interesting to see what they do

I don't know... a friend of ours is working at the airport already and seems to think it will be open this year....

Nothing really to stop it opening even without the new bypass.

My gut feeling is it will have the soft opening predicted and build up to more flights per day.

In order to open the new airport they will have to shut down the existing airport, as the safety equipment (firetrucks, emergency vehicles etc) will be taken from the existing airport to the new airport. There is no budget for the new airport to purchase their own. The logistics of moving from Mataram to Praya, and all that implies is pretty big (and makes me wonder why they spent all that money on the domestic airport facilities a couple of years ago).

They also have to find the money to repurchase the special runway lighting that can only be bought from France, and that was stolen shortly after it was installed (you'de think it would be relatively easy to find the theif - not exactly an easy thing to sell!).

I just find it hard to believe that all that is going to happen sometime in the next few months. I know they've talked about a soft opening this year, but the logistics of that seem a bit vague. I think they are hoping for a soft opening this year, because it saves face over saying it will not open this year.

I'm not expecting to be able to get on a plane direct to Lombok any time soon, and after Singapore, Perth to Lombok is a likely candidate for the first new route into Lombok (the Singapore one already existing with Silk Air), especially considering at least two budget airlines have looked long and hard at flying into the existing airport using smaller jets like the Silk planes.

Bottom line, for anyone planning a holiday to Lombok this year, there are no international airlines that have scheduled flights into the Lombok International airport as yet. So we must continue to fly into other entry points in Indonesia and transfer to Lombok by air or boat.

Freogirl,

I can always start a rumor - Josi

Dubai, April 1, 2010

Reliable sources from Dubhai Sovereign Fund say that with the completion of their tower and working out the kinks in the electrical system, the bored French Engineers want to take on the next challenge in Lombok, Indonesia to complete the recently built airport.

They plan to undertake a crash effort to drain the nearby lake, add additional drainage along the runways and electrify the landing lights to prevent theft or vandalism with Hati Hati signs but in French only.

When asked about the target date, the spokesperson said they would like to have their maiden flight soon after Ramadan. When asked about the new highway to be built, "no problem" they said, adding that the international passengers will be ferried on helicopters to the hotels free of charge.

When pressed about the security around the airport, they assured this reporter that they are working on an innovative idea involving the drained water from the lake to build a moat around the airport that will be stocked with Piranha. Noticing the skepticism on the face of the reporter, the spokesperson said that the airport wil be self contained with staff residences and all supplies ferried by air including jet fuel. No problem with money because we have the oil to back up our fund added the spokesperson.