New International Airport … Lombok Set to Take Off!
The future of Lombok is set to change, if plans to build a new international airport on the island go ahead as planned. Tourism sector businesses, investors and government agencies have been pushing for around ten years to have an international airport built on the island and, at last, it appears the dream will become a reality.
Development on the long-awaited Lombok International Airport (Bandara Internasional Lombok or BIL) was finally started in November 2005 and progress has been slow but steady over the past year. On 19 January this year, the Governor of NTB (Nusa Tenggara Barat) laid the foundation stone for the start of construction of the runway.
The airport will be located in Tanak Awu, Central Lombok, and will replace the existing Selaparang airport in Mataram, which currently can only handle small aircraft and is limited to mainly domestic flights. Governor Serinata explained that the new airport is urgently needed because the region has important tourism potential, but can not be developed further if the airport can’t handle wide body planes.
The new Lombok International Airport will have a length of 2.750km and a width of 45m, making the airport suitable for landing Airbus 310’s and Boeing 747’s, and is within flight range of Australia, Japan, Timor, Taiwan and Korea. The estimated budget for the development is IDR 665 billion (approximately US$72.3 million), not including land purchase.
The Tanak Awu site itself is an obvious good choice for an airport, on approximately 538.8 Ha of open land with no hills or mountains nearby. There is a large deposit of limestone on the east boundary which is being quarried and used in construction. Earthworks are well under way, with roads and runway construction commenced. There’s even a lake at the entrance which will provide attractive landscaping in the future.
The new airport is being constructed by Indonesian company, PT Angkasa Pura I (the managers of Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport) and is being carried out in cooperation with the provincial Government of NTB (Pemprov) and the Central Lombok Government (Pemkab Loteng), at an estimated cost of Rp 665 billion. PT Angkasa Pura I is providing Rp 515 billion to develop all the airport facilities, except for the construction of the taxiway, apron and supporting facilities by the Government of NTB, equal to Rp110 billion. The Central Lombok Government will provide a further Rp 40 billion for developing the park car, access roads and supporting facilities.
Tanak Awu is located approximately 7 km west of Pujut, on the main road heading south from the cities toward Kuta. The nearby small towns of Kerdiri and Kuripan are also getting a facelift, with a new major road already being constructed and foundations laid for water supply lines to the airport site. The Lombok government has also said they have plans for the construction of a new steam-generated power plant near Lembar to cope with the electricity demands of the airport and surrounding developments.
The news that construction of the airport is going ahead has already attracted interest from international developers, keen to move in early if Lombok is opened up for international travel. Since construction started just over a year ago, local and international investors have been snapping up land around the area, particularly in the nearby tourism resort zone of Kuta on Lombok’s south coast. One major Middle-East developer, Emaar Properties, already has plans to invest US $600 million in the area, with the construction of major hotels, a condominium complex, shopping, restaurants and a golf course.
Investors currently operating in Lombok have struggled with low tourism numbers over the past few years, mainly due to the after-effects of the Bali bombings and the lack of flights available to Lombok. If the airport development continues according to schedule, all that is set to change and those who were here first stand to benefit from the expected boom.
Of course, we all know that things can fall over very quickly in Indonesia and nothing is set in stone, but all indications are that the airport development will be pushed ahead and Lombok will be on the international flight path by 2010.
