Bali Expat Forum - Bali Travel Forum

[Tim]

Hi Mimpimanis,
Who is funding construction of the new airport? From your latest picture, it does't look like it has made much progress since this posting began almost two years ago.
As a true Lomboker, what do you foresee in general for Lombok?

[Sanurian]

Whoops and sorry, mimpi

...The international flights from Singapore & KL fly into the old Selaparang Airport, near Mataram, not the new International airport - which is far from operational.

I don't know the physical location of the new airport. My "point" referred to the fact that some non-Indonesian airlines have been flying to Lombok for quite some time.

I guess when the new one is finally "operational", many things will change quite rapidly in Western Lombok. I disagree with Roy's thought that it ain't going to happen, (ie, that the new airstrip will ever be completed).

And BTW. I couldn't get your photo up here...the link took me to Webshots' home page.
Sing-ken-ken

[mimpimanis]

Sorry you couldnt open the photo Sanurian - this is only the second photo I have posted on a forum directly so I am not very good at it. My guess is if you arent a webshots member you cant view the bigger pic by clicking on it and I dont know how to post a bigger pic here... hmmm just had an idea that I willk try after.

Yes there have been international flights in & out of Lombok for years.Only the two destinations though, Singapore & KL. The KL flight is mostly for migrant workers. I have flown it a few times and was the only foreigner and one of only a handful of women. The new airport is actually down south, 15km from Kuta. So its the south that it wil have the biggest impact on. A few years ago there were demos about it being there not Mataram, believed by some to be sponsored by businesses in the area of the existing airport.

Tim, there is a bit more going on there now. For a long time there were just a few JCBs at work, they do now have some cranes in there and more heavy machinery. Its a bit far away so hard to see in the photo. Also I saw a helicopter landing there one day as I passed. The word is still "open in 2010" but I really cant see it happening that soon.

[FreoGirl]

The word is still "open in 2010" but I really cant see it happening that soon.

Not even if they adopted the Chinese method of building airports - the world's largest airport, recently opened in Beijing, took only 4 years to construct. It took 50,000 workers and cost nearly 4 billion USD. I read that the Chinese built this airport in the same time it took England to get through the public debate process for Heathrow's terminal 5. China doesn't believe in public debate - the government just 'does it'. They flattened 15 villages and 'relocated' more than 10,000 people and whacked the thing up.

Personally, having seen the speed at which most building projects go in Lombok, I think the airport will be lucky to be finished by 2025. Maybe by that time, world travel will have greatly reduced due to the fuel crises and rising cost of international travel - and it will either never be finished or sit there as a white elephant. But probably not - it will eventually be finished, and tourism will expand further into Lombok - it will make life as an expat easier (as it has done in Bali), but at what cost to the beauty of the island?

[Tim]

but at what cost to the beauty of the island?

I'm "almost positive", it's not a consideration.

[FreoGirl]

but at what cost to the beauty of the island?

I'm "almost positive", it's not a consideration.

Ahh and there's the rub, because people don't come half way around the world to visit an overdeveloped, polluted, Asian island. I know people who don't go to Bali anymore because the paradise they once knew is well gone - it could be all over for Lombok before it even starts if the government doesn't pay heed.

But I agree, it is not a consideration, or a fleeting one at best. It has already happened in Lombok - an area where I have spent quite a bit of time, Mangsit, is now a shadow of it's former self - what was once a beautiful curved bay, facing toward Mt Agung on Bali with amazing sunsets is now an eroded polluted beach, with ugly wave breakers (to replace the reef destroyed by locals bombing it for fish), the sand on the beach is gone except at one end, and the lovely hillside of one end of the bay has been hacked away and stripped of vegetation in preparation for villa development. The sunset remains.

[Tim]

That is really hard to believe....must hurt to see those changes.

[mimpimanis]

Just has two freinds visit me today who have been in Kuta Lombok on and off the last few months. They say in the last two weeks there is suddenly a lot more activity and heavy machinery there. They were surprised at the difference from two weeks previoulsy when they left Lombok for a trip to Flores.