Australia yesterday issued a travel warning to its citizens who want to travel to Indonesia. This raises concerns about a decrease in the number of airplane passengers.
However, visits by tourists from Australia to Indonesia, especially to Bali, are still running normally. PT Angkasa Pura I I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport noted that there were 608,460 passengers from Australia landing in Bali. The data is recorded for the period January to November 2022.
Handy Heryudhitiawan, General Manager of PT Angkasa Pura I at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, explained that the number was served by 5 airlines, namely Jetstar Airways, Virgin Australia, Qantas Airways, Batik Air, and Air Asia. With 6 routes consisting of Adelaide, Darwin, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane.
Regarding the issue of flight cancellations from Australia which have been widely reported by foreign media as a result of the passing of the Criminal Code prohibiting sex outside of marriage, Handy emphasized that so far flights to and from Australia are still running normally.
“Until now, all international flights to and from Bali are running normally according to the schedule submitted by airlines serving flights from Australia to Bali and vice versa,” said Handy in a written statement, Thursday (8/12/2022).
Handy ensures that even if there are flight cancellations, usually the information received is due to operational reasons and technical issues.
As previously reported, The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Thursday (8/12/2022) updated its travel advice to “warning” its citizens going to Indonesia.
This is due to the impact of the ratification of the Draft Criminal Code into the Criminal Code earlier this week. New rules prohibiting sex outside of marriage for residents and travelers are to blame.
“The Indonesian parliament has passed a revision of the penal code, which includes penalties for cohabitation and sex outside of marriage,” said an update posted on the Smart Traveler website,
“Travellers beware… because otherwise, we could see some very unfortunate situations where we have to provide consular assistance to people who unknowingly or unknowingly do the wrong thing,” the announcement added.
However, it noted the revisions would not come into force for three years.