North Bali Airport Just Got Presidential Backing, and It’s Being Privately Funded
A second airport for Bali has been discussed for so long that most people on the island stopped believing in it somewhere around the third announcement. It’s been proposed, relocated, redesigned and shelved more than once. So the temptation is to file the latest development under “we’ve heard this before.”
This one is slightly different, and the difference is the money.
Short version: the proposed North Bali airport at Kubutambahan has presidential support and is being planned as a fully private project, with no national or provincial budget money involved.
What Actually Happened
On July 14, 2026, President Prabowo Subianto met Baringin Panggabean, President Commissioner of PT Pembangunan Bali Mandiri, at the presidential retreat in Hambalang, West Java. The President expressed support for what was described as the swift realization of the airport, calling it strategically important.
The project sits in the Kubutambahan area of Buleleng Regency on Bali’s north coast. It’s already included in the 2025 to 2029 National Medium-Term Development Plan, and its initial design and feasibility study have been approved by the Directorate General of Air Transportation.
The Funding Model Is the Real News
Here’s the part that separates this from previous rounds. The airport is being planned without funding from the national budget or the provincial budget. It’s private investment, full stop.
That matters because state-funded infrastructure in Indonesia competes against every other national priority, and Bali’s second airport has historically lost that competition. A privately funded project doesn’t queue behind roads in Sumatra or ports in Sulawesi. It has a different set of risks, but it also has a different set of timelines.
On the design itself, Panggabean noted the plan “has always contemplated the ability to accommodate wide-body aircraft” including the Boeing 777 and Airbus A380. That’s not a regional feeder airport. That’s a design intended to take long-haul traffic directly.
What It Would Change
Three stated goals: take pressure off Ngurah Rai, spread economic activity away from the crowded south, and create employment in Bali’s northern, western and eastern regions.
The first goal is the most immediately understandable. Ngurah Rai is running at essentially full capacity right now, and even its expansion programme only targets 32 million passengers by 2031. A second airport changes that maths entirely.
The second goal is the more interesting one for travelers. North Bali is genuinely different from the south, quieter and cooler, and it’s already the focus of a deliberate push to develop tourism beyond the southern hubs. Landing directly in Buleleng rather than driving three hours from Denpasar would reshape how people visit places like Lovina.
The Honest Caveat
No construction timeline and no cost figure have been announced. Design approval and a feasibility study are meaningful milestones, but they are not concrete being poured. Treat this as a serious project that has cleared real hurdles, not as an airport that opens next year.
Quick Answers About the North Bali Airport
Where would it be? Kubutambahan, in Buleleng Regency on Bali’s north coast.
Who’s paying? Private investors, via PT Pembangunan Bali Mandiri. No national or provincial budget funding.
How big? Designed to handle wide-body aircraft including the Boeing 777 and Airbus A380.
When will it open? No construction timeline has been announced. Design and feasibility have been approved and it’s in the 2025-2029 national development plan.
The Chimera Villas Take
Nothing here changes a Seminyak holiday in 2026 or 2027. But if you’re the kind of traveler who has been eyeing North Bali and deciding the drive is too much, this is worth filing away. In the meantime the north is still very much reachable as a long day trip or an overnight, and honestly, the drive over the mountains is half the appeal.
