Mandatory Swab Test has made itself felt on arrival numbers at Ngurah Rai International Airport.
The Bali Airport Authority recorded 6,289 arriving domestic passengers on Sunday, 20 December 2020. That number compares poorly with the 13,473 passengers who landed three days earlier on Thursday, 17 December 2020, the day before the more stringent entry requirements took effect from Bali’s Provincial Government.
Taufan Yudhistira, the Stakeholder Relation Manager for The Airport Authority PT Angkasa Pura I at Ngurah Rai, confirmed that on mid-day Monday, 21 December 2020, arrivals continued a downward trend with only 1,800 passengers arriving as of noonday.
NusaBali.com quotes Taufan, who suggested that the decline in passenger total is linked to the government’s new Swab Tests requirement.
The requirement for all arriving passengers to undergo a PCR Swab Test during the Christmas and New Year period was mandated in Circular Memorandum Number 2021 for the year 2020 suddenly issued by the Governor on Tuesday, 15 December 2020,
Following protests and input from the public, the Provincial Government modified the regulation shortly after its publication to stall its implementation date by one day to Saturday, 19 December, and remain in effect until 04 January 2021. The Governor also loosened the regulation from initially requiring test results performed 48 hours before travel to a new period of seven days.
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