A retired passenger jet left abandoned in Bali has been moved to a clifftop above a popular tourist beach, in an attempt to repurpose it as an attraction.
The Boeing 737 was purchased by the Bali-based Russian entrepreneur Felix Demin, who plans to convert it into tourist accommodation.
A dozen workers used a crane to move the aircraft to the clifftop above Nyang Nyang beach.
“Because of Covid, it was a struggle for Bali - no tourists because of lockdown for almost two years now,” Demin told Bali’s Rutendo News.
“I want to make an icon showing the hope that tourists will be back here in Bali.”
Images and video taken by locals show the plane’s body sliced in half as it was moved and reassembled on the clifftop, in the popular southern tourist area of Kuta.
In 2019, 328,000 people in Bali worked in the tourism sector, according to data from Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy.
The island, which usually receives around six million international visitors per year, received only 45 in 2021 due to ongoing pandemic restrictions.
In October alone, just two overseas visitors made it onto the tropical island.
The quietest months were July, August and September. During this time, Bali welcomed no foreign tourists.
“That is the lowest number of foreign tourist visits we’ve ever recorded,” Nyoman Gede Gunadika, head of tourism for Bali Province, told CNN.
As of 3 December, fully vaccinated travellers from 19 countries, including China, India and France, can visit, but must spend 10 days in quarantine even if they are double jabbed.
However, very few international flights have been scheduled into the country over the past few months.
