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Image: Airport apron not big enough. Credit: Youtube

The Indonesian government will host the International Monetary Fund Annual Meeting in Nusa Dua in October this year and the Ministry of Transport (Kemenhub) has been preparing space for the parked aircraft of the 189 delegations.

Kemenhub ensures that there will be four international airports ready to handle the airplanes that will bring approximately 15 thousand delegates to Bali.

“We have prepared three airports to help Bali airport, which are Lombok International Airport (LIA), Surabaya (Juanda) and Balikpapan (Sepinggan Airport). Everything is ready and there is no foreseeable problem at all,” said the Minister of Transport, Budi Karya Sumadi, not so long ago in Jakarta.

Alternate airports are being prepared because of the area limitation of Ngurah Rai Airport. They estimate that the Ngurah Rai parking area or apron is not large enough for all the incoming delegates.

“The head of states will land at Ngurah Rai and because of the apron limitation, after landing the planes they will have to park in another airport,” Budi Karya said to gatra.com.

PT Angkasa Pura I (Persero) is also preparing itself. They have already started a reclamation plan to extend the parking area and apron to add a number of parked airplanes for the summit. The extension will cost around Rp 1.7 billion.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Tourism, Arief Yahya, said that the IMF Annual Meeting being held in Bali will help to make Indonesia more famous. “The spirit is Indonesian Incorporated. This is a grand event. We must work together to make it successful. This event will be a way to promote Bali and beyond, and especially wonderful Indonesia,” he said.

Besides the delegates, the event will be attended by global and regional economic institution representatives, civil institutions, the private sector and academics, and media from around the world.

“This is the moment to make Indonesia tourism destinations famous all over the world, because the delegates and invited guests coming are top executives. The impact will be doubled and the economic value will be huge,” said Arief Yahya.