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MINISTER of Transportation, Dudy Purwagandhi acknowledged that the number of domestic passenger numbers to Bali declined at the end of December 2025. Between December 18-30, 2025, domestic passenger numbers to Bali decreased by 2.2%. Meanwhile, international passenger numbers increased by 5% compared to the same period the previous year.
However, Dudy did not provide specific figures. “Domestic passengers from December 18 to 30 saw a slight decrease of around 2%. However, international passengers from December 18 to 30 increased by 5%. Seat availability is still sufficient,” Dudy explained during a media briefing on Wednesday (12/31), 2025.
Meanwhile, the Director General of Air Transportation at the Ministry of Transportation, Lukman F. Laisa, explained that 32 additional flights to I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport, Denpasar, are available daily. According to him, almost all of them are full.
However, Lukman said, the flight load factor to Bali from December 18-30, 2025, only reached 72.5%, with a total of 21,184 unutilized seats.
“As of today, 294 extra flights have been used, out of the planned 329. However, we can see that the total load factor is only 72.58%. Nationally, Lukman noted a 2.2% decrease in passengers to Bali, despite a 2.01% cumulative increase in the number of flights from December 18-30, 2025, compared to last year,” Lukman explained.
Meanwhile, international flights to Bali saw a 5% cumulative increase in passengers, with a 7.2% increase in the number of flights. Therefore, the total number of passengers to Bali during the 2026 Christmas and New Year holiday period, both domestic and international, is still expected to increase.
“So, for total domestic and international flights, the cumulative increase from December 18 to 30 is 0.9 percent for passengers, and 0.7 percent for flights. So, the total still increases when combined,” Lukman explained.
On the other hand, Dudy also responded to complaints about expensive domestic flight prices, especially to Medan, requiring passengers to transit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He stated that flight prices to Medan during Christmas and New Year are naturally higher due to increased demand from passengers celebrating Christmas.
“In December, many of our Christian brothers and sisters come to Medan. So, if it’s full, that’s just the way it is,” Dudy emphasized.
Besides Christmas, Dudy believes the increase in flight demand to Medan is also due to the large number of volunteers and other stakeholders arriving after the flood disaster in Sumatra.
“Not to mention, the disaster situation has caused what was normally a peak to become a peak.” “Many people, like fellow volunteers, are going there, which puts a strain on the capacity of passengers heading to Medan,” Dudy said.
Meanwhile, for other popular flight routes, Dudy explained that high prices could be due to economy class seats being sold out first. This leaves only business class seats, whose prices are not regulated by the Upper Tariff Limit (TBA) and do not receive any discounts.
For economy, he continued that we offer discounts. But for business class, we don’t. So, if they’re expensive, the choice might be due to one reason: they’re unavailable during peak periods, or secondly, only business class seats are available.
“We don’t regulate business class seats because we give airlines some flexibility to determine them. But within reasonable limits. So, if people complain about the high prices, it’s usually business class,” he concluded. [sources/photo special]
