North Bali Airport: Shelved, Revived, Unbuilt

Is the North Bali airport being built, and what is its status in the latest reports?#

No construction is reported at the proposed North Bali airport in Kubutambahan, Buleleng, in the latest reports reviewed, dated 6 August 2026. The airport has been announced, shelved and revived repeatedly since 2016. None of the Antara or detikBali reports reviewed describes a groundbreaking. The principal should read the project as a planning intention with political backing, not as an asset with a delivery date.

A planning intention is a different instrument from a construction contract. Indonesia's RPJMN is the five-year medium-term national development plan, issued as a presidential regulation. Antara reported on 28 April 2025 that the North Bali airport sits in the 2025–2029 plan under Presidential Regulation No. 12 of 2025. Inclusion lists a project. It does not by itself deliver a fixed site, a financing close or a build schedule. That reading is Victaura Research's own, and the source does not state it.

Two official positions appeared in the same July. On 12 July 2026 Antara reported that Transport Minister Dudy Purwagandhi had ruled out Kubutambahan and named Lt. Col. Wisnu Airfield in Buleleng as the ministry's focus. On 19 July Antara reported that President Prabowo Subianto supported accelerating the Kubutambahan project after a meeting on 14 July. One agency carried both. Neither report is a construction event.

This article asks one valuation question. What should a principal pay today for an airport that has no groundbreaking? The answer built below is nothing, until a site is fixed, financing closes and works are visible. The sections that follow give the dated record, test the access logic and list what the evidence cannot show.

Claims in the table and stats carry a grade. Every statement and figure here reached Victaura Research through a press report, including the ministry figures carried by Petromindo, so each is directional and labelled press-reported. Directional means a signal whose direction is reliable but whose size is not.

How did the Kubutambahan airport get from announcement to shelf between 2016 and 2022?#

The record starts with a memorandum, not a runway. On 20 May 2016 TTG Asia reported a memorandum of understanding between SAKAE Corporate Advisory, Buleleng Regency and PT Baruna Indonesia for a North Bali airport development in two phases, a transit hotel and private jet parking first, then a ferry terminal and a seaport. The article gives no investment figure and no opening date. That absence is the first pattern in the file. Announcements arrive with named parties and without numbers.

In April 2018 the central government reversed an earlier negative view. Antara reported on 2 April 2018 that the government would proceed with an international airport in Buleleng, after earlier saying the project was not feasible on a World Bank survey. Groundbreaking was scheduled for August 2018. Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, then Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, said a road linking north and south Bali would be built first, and called the delay an adjustment of the calendar because the investment was large. None of the sources reviewed reports a groundbreaking in 2018.

By 2022 the site itself had moved on paper. detikBali reported on 18 July 2022 that the draft Bali spatial plan for 2022–2042 placed the airport in Sumberklampok village, Gerokgak district, in western Buleleng. The same report cites a Cabinet Secretary letter dated 28 April 2022 stating that the North Bali airport was not continued because development had moved west. Final location setting stayed with the Transport Ministry. Sumberklampok is not Kubutambahan, yet the 2026 reports are again about Kubutambahan.

Each turn in the file came with a letter, a plan or a statement, and none came with a contractor. From 2016 to 2022 the sources show a memorandum, a ministerial decision, a spatial plan and a cabinet letter. They show no site works. For underwriting, a project that changes site on paper and then changes back has not yet been located. This is Victaura Research's reading, and it is directional.

What revived the North Bali airport in 2025?#

The revival ran through the national plan. Antara reported on 28 April 2025 that the airport was part of Presidential Regulation No. 12 of 2025 on the 2025–2029 RPJMN. Deputy Governor I Nyoman Giri Prasta said the province had not yet communicated with the central government about the inclusion, and that the airport was a priority but not urgent. He recalled that former president Megawati Soekarnoputri had rejected the project. The same plan also listed the Mengwi–Gilimanuk toll road, which had earlier been dropped from the National Strategic Projects.

Giri Prasta named the commercial risk in plain terms. He warned of a route from Jakarta to Buleleng that is 80 percent full outbound and empty on the return, which airlines would not want to fly, and he said it was not possible for the region then to be told to pay. The 80 percent figure is an illustration by the speaker, not a measurement. The point stands without it. Airport value is route economics, and a runway does not create routes.

On 26 June 2025 the central government said the President had approved the project. Antara reported that Muhaimin Iskandar, Coordinating Minister for Community Empowerment, said President Prabowo approved the airport and that the Transport Ministry would finalise the location before construction. Erwanto Sad Adiatmoko Hariwibowo, president director of PT BIBU Panji Sakti, said the company was waiting for the final location decision and a groundbreaking date, perhaps a few months away. No groundbreaking is reported in the later sources reviewed.

The order of approvals matters more than their number. Approval in principle comes first, then a fixed location, then financing, then works. In September 2025 Bali.live, citing Antara, reported that the Royal Council of Bali, which groups 13 palaces, urged the President to begin work, and that a representative said only actual construction would show the project is more than a political promise. The developer's stated target was a first runway by 2028. That is a developer-stated target, not a permit and not a date set by a government document.

What did the Transport Minister and the President say about the North Bali airport in July 2026?#

On 11 July 2026 the Transport Minister ruled out Kubutambahan. Antara reported from Denpasar on 12 July that Dudy Purwagandhi said Lt. Col. Wisnu Airfield in Buleleng would be offered to investors and would be the ministry's focus for air transport. He described the plan as developing an existing airport so that North Bali can grow as South Bali has. He said the Lt. Col. (Letkol) Wisnu site is clearer, with no remaining land or environmental problems. The English Antara report of 11 July quotes him calling the airfield the sole focus.

Governor Wayan Koster set a narrow function for that airfield. He said the province wants to develop it into a special-purpose airport for emergency landings when Ngurah Rai has problems, private jets, charter flights and logistics. The province has formed a business entity and plans land acquisition, and it welcomes investors. He said it is not currently planned as a commercial airport like Ngurah Rai, and he linked the position to protecting farmland and the subak irrigation system.

Three days after the ministerial meeting, the President met the project's backer. Antara reported on 19 July that on 14 July Prabowo met Baringin Panggabean, president commissioner of PT Pembangunan Bali Mandiri, at Hambalang in West Java, with State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi present. The President supported speeding up the project and asked whether the airport could handle wide-body aircraft such as the Boeing 777 and Airbus A380. Panggabean said it was designed for them from the start, on a feasibility study approved by the Directorate General of Air Transportation. The report says private investment would fund it and gives no cost figure. Antara's June 2025 report names a different company, PT BIBU Panji Sakti, as the developer, and neither report states how the two companies relate.

Local officials did not treat the matter as settled. Bali.live reported on 22 July 2026 that Buleleng Regent Nyoman Sutjidra urged people not to speculate and said the central government had not approved either the construction or the site. That is a regency-level statement, reported second-hand, and it sits beside the presidential support without contradicting the fact of the meeting. It says approval has not been issued. This article records the three positions side by side and does not reconcile them.

What is the Letkol Wisnu airfield alternative, and what does it mean for the north of the island?#

Lt. Col. Wisnu Airfield is an existing airfield in Buleleng, in Gerokgak district, and the Transport Ministry has named it as the focus. An existing airfield differs from a greenfield airport in the respect that underwriting cares about most. The site already exists. The minister's own claim is that no land or environmental problems remain there. That is a claim by the party that owns the decision, and it is not an audit.

The government's own papers give two jobs to two sites, and the two accounts clash. detikBali reported on 6 August 2026 that a coordination meeting on 30 July at the Coordinating Ministry for Infrastructure and Regional Development confirmed Letkol Wisnu would focus on small-scale flights. It reported the Kubutambahan airport as a public airport for commercial flights, including wide-body aircraft, under Bali Provincial Regulation No. 2 of 2023. The Transport Minister had said Kubutambahan was off the table. The record holds both statements. The principal should hold both.

Why not Letkol Wisnu for a large airport, according to the same report. detikBali lists dense residential areas around the airfield, hills to the south, west and east, mangroves and the sea to the north, and sacred temples on nearby hilltops said to be hundreds or possibly thousands of years old. The government considers those conditions unsuitable for a large international airport. The report presents the expected benefits for jobs, tourism and new growth centres as expectations, and it cites no study of them.

Near-term northern access in the record is about ports and a small airfield. In the 12 July report the minister asked Pelindo to revitalise Celukan Bawang Port for ferry crossings, Koster proposed roll-on/roll-off ferries, the minister backed developing Kusamba port, and land at Amed and Sangsit ports is to be offered to the private sector. A water taxi at Badung, whose facilities the minister hopes to finish by November 2026, is meant to cut the Ngurah Rai to Canggu journey from 1.5–2 hours to about 30 minutes. Those are stated targets. Read together, they suggest that visible state effort is going into ferries, ports and a light-aircraft field before a wide-body gateway. That inference is Victaura Research's and is directional.

What would a northern gateway change for access, and what does the record say about the road?#

No source reviewed measures an access change, and the record says the road comes first, more than once. In 2018 Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan said a north–south road would be built before the airport groundbreaking. On 29 May 2024 Antara reported Koster setting out the stages. An access study to fix the site and choose between a toll road and a railway would take about one year. Land acquisition across steep, hilly valleys would take at least two years. Construction would take at least two more. Only then, in five to six years, could the airport's main infrastructure be discussed. That sequence is longer than the government target of about three years that detikBali reported on 6 August 2026.

The same speaker named the failure case. Koster, then a former governor and chair of the PDI Perjuangan Bali regional board, cited Kertajati Airport in West Java, which he described as completed in 2018 but operating only from late 2023, with three airlines. He warned against large investment that cannot function at capacity because supporting infrastructure is not ready. The warning comes from a political actor, and it fits the commercial point the deputy governor made in 2025. Completion of a runway and traffic on it are separate events.

The toll road listed in the plan is a west–central corridor, and it has not been built. Petromindo reported on 8 April 2026 that the 96.84 km Gilimanuk–Mengwi toll road is estimated at Rp12.7 trillion, about USD 747 million, under a public-private partnership. A tender is planned for 2027 and operation is targeted for 2031 if preparations proceed. The ministry expects the journey between Gilimanuk and Mengwi to fall from roughly six hours to about three. The sources reviewed do not tie this corridor to a specific access road for Kubutambahan.

What an operating northern gateway would change is a government expectation, not a measured effect. Officials expect the airport to spread economic activity and grow tourism and services across North, West and East Bali. No source reviewed gives a passenger forecast, a route plan or a transfer time from the airport to any villa market. The principal should therefore hold the access benefit at zero in a model until the road and the airport both show works, because the benefit needs both.

Does a North Bali airport change the case for villas in Uluwatu or on Gili Air?#

The reviewed record shows no mechanism that links a Kubutambahan airport to access in Uluwatu or on Gili Air. Uluwatu lies on the southern Bukit peninsula, which Ngurah Rai already serves. Gili Air is an island off Lombok, reached by sea. A northern gateway could alter flows to the north and east coasts. It would not shorten the road from Ngurah Rai to the Bukit. This is Victaura Research's reading of geography, and it is directional, because no source reviewed models traffic.

If anything, the stated reason for the project points at the south. The 19 July Antara report says a second international airport is increasingly urgent because of rising tourist numbers and the limited capacity of Ngurah Rai. A relief valve for Ngurah Rai could help southern transfers one day. The record does not quantify that, and it sets no date. A principal pricing a southern villa should treat any such relief as an unpriced option and not as a component of value.

Where the airport does matter is in the seller's narrative. An airport announcement is easy to cite and hard to test. The test is observed performance and observed supply, and the site's pieces on Bali luxury villa ADR and occupancy and on Gili Air's supply constraint set out how those are measured. The constraint on Gili Air is finite ground and a tenure ceiling fixed in statute, and an airport in Buleleng changes neither.

The same discipline applies to infrastructure as to unfinished stages. A shell is not a finished villa, and an announcement is not a runway. The reading of building stages in Uluwatu Shell and Core asks what is built and what is only promised. The same question applies to the airport. What exists is a plan listing, a site that has changed on paper, two official positions and a developer waiting for a decision.

How should a principal treat the North Bali airport as a valuation input?#

Carry it at zero until observable triggers appear. Five are visible from outside. The Transport Ministry fixes the location, since detikBali reported on 18 July 2022 that definitive location setting stays with the ministry. A financing close under the public-private partnership scheme is announced with a named sponsor and an amount, which the Antara reports do not give. A contractor mobilises and site works are seen. Access roads show construction. Airlines commit to routes. Each trigger can be checked from public reports and from the ground.

Paying early buys an option with an unknown expiry. The file contains at least two near-term dates, August 2018 for a groundbreaking and a few months from June 2025 for a groundbreaking date. The sources reviewed report no groundbreaking against either. A premium paid for the announcement is a premium paid for a date that has moved before. The cost of waiting for a trigger is a higher entry price if the airport does proceed. The cost of paying early is a premium that may never be returned.

The route test is the harder one. An airport that opens with weak routes is a Kertajati case, which is the example Koster himself gave. Nothing in the reviewed sources names an airline, a route or a seat commitment for Kubutambahan. The principal should therefore ask a seller who cites the airport for the document. A location decision from the Transport Ministry, a signed financing structure or a contractor notice are documents. A press conference is not.

What does this analysis not show, honestly disclosed?#

The latest report found is dated 6 August 2026. A permit, a financing announcement or a groundbreaking could have been reported since, and the searches did not find one. The status line therefore reads as of the latest reports reviewed and not as of today. The principal should re-check the Transport Ministry and Antara before relying on any status here.

Several pages were read in summary and not in full. The Antara pages carry a notice limiting automated copying, so the article relies on the substance of each report and on short excerpts. The English Antara report of 11 July 2026 sits at an address that does not describe its content. One secondary source from 2024 was left out because its address did not pass verification. Statements by Prabowo are known only through Antara and detikBali, not through a transcript.

Several claims rest on a single source. The three-year completion target is reported by detikBali alone. The Buleleng Regent's statement reaches this article through Bali.live. The developer says studies are complete, while officials quoted in the press say no approval or site has been issued. This article does not decide between them. It records that the dispute exists, and that no document in the sources settles it.

Some readings are Victaura Research's own and are directional. The geography of Uluwatu and Gili Air, the view that visible effort is going into ports and a light field, and the five triggers are judgments, not facts from a source. Annual tourism arrival totals for 2025 appear in more than one version in the press, so this article uses none of them. Two official positions in July conflict, and the conflict is named here, not resolved.

Where does this leave the allocator on North Bali?#

As of the latest reports reviewed, dated 6 August 2026, the North Bali airport is a listed and contested project with no reported works. The Transport Minister has ruled out Kubutambahan, the President has supported accelerating it, and a regent has said the centre has approved neither construction nor site. The record supports a plain status. It is unbuilt, and its location and financing remain open in the sources.

The practical rule is to price what exists and watch what would change it. What exists is an island with one main international gateway under capacity strain, a small northern airfield with a defined light-aviation role, and ports under discussion. What would change it is a fixed location, a financed contract, visible works and a road. Until then, the principal reads the airport as context. The allocator's file should record the date of each trigger when it arrives.

The next review should be dated and sourced like this one. Check the Transport Ministry's location decision, any financing announcement, the 2027 toll road tender and the Badung water taxi, whose facilities the minister hoped to finish by November 2026. Each of those is observable and has a named owner. The airport headline is not an observable. This article will be superseded by whichever of them arrives first.

Skin in the game disclosure. Victaura, through its parent Greystone B.V. (Netherlands), develops projects on Lake Como (Italy), in Nungwi, Zanzibar (Tanzania), on Gili Air and in Uluwatu, Bali (Indonesia), and holds an off-plan capital position on Al Marjan Island, Ras Al Khaimah (UAE). Readers should assume commentary may be influenced by, or benefit, these positions. This document is classified as marketing material under MiFID II Article 24(3). It is not investment advice.