TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-airport operator Angkasa Pura I (AP I) reported on Tuesday that there have been 4,960 Indonesian migrant workers transported home through Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport amidst the COVID-19 pandemic from special chartered ‘repatriation flights.’

“Up until April, there have been 4,960 Indonesian nationals we transported to Indonesia through Bali on these special chartered flights. We expect the number to rise as requests for unscheduled rescue flights also increase,” said AP I vice president corporate secretary Handy Heryudhitiawan in Tuesday’s press conference.

He added that flights with special missions as these are one of the reasons that certain airports remain in operation. The flights exclusively serve the purpose to repatriate Indonesian nationals from foreign countries and the other way around by repatriation of foreigners from Indonesia back to their countries.

There were 11 air carriers that participated in the 27 rescue flights from March 23 2020 to April 27 2020 that consists of LOT Polish Airlines, LATAM Airlines, Qatar Airways, Wamos Air, Air Europa, NEOS Air, Ethiopian Airlines, Smartwings, AirAsia X, Garuda Indonesia, serta Air Cairo.

Handy Heryudhitiawan added that the homecoming of these Indonesian migrant workers are conducted under strict health and safety protocols commenced by airport health institutions and the COVID-19 task force.

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