No seaplane schedule for Mandalika race weeks exists in 2026, and none is confirmed for 2027. If the NTB-Aman Air waterbase at Bendungan Batujai clears its permitting and certification steps, a race week would be the first place operators test extra rotations, because it concentrates thousands of arrivals into a single multi-day window on a corridor boats already struggle to clear fast enough. Everything below is a planning scenario, not a booking option.
Is There Already a Scheduled Seaplane Network for Lombok and Gili in 2026?
No. Research dated 17-18 September 2026 found no scheduled, publicly advertised seaplane service connecting Mandalika, Lombok’s main airport, or the Gili islands. Every citable passenger option on this corridor today is a boat, a car transfer, or a combination of the two. Santai Seaplane Indonesia runs a Bali-Lombok charter page, but it is a separate third-party operator with no affiliation to this site and no fixed Mandalika-Gili route.
That matters for race-week planning because any “2027 seaplane schedule” discussion is necessarily hypothetical. Anyone researching a seaplane transfer for Mandalika events today will find the same answer: book the boat-and-road route that already exists, and treat seaplane timing as a future upgrade to watch, not a line item to budget against yet.
What Actually Changed in 2026 to Make a 2027 Network Plausible?
Two dated developments moved this from speculation to a live planning question. NTB tourism news from 27 December 2025 said flights linking Lombok’s BIZAM airport to small islands were being prepared to start sometime in 2026. Then, on 28 February 2026, the NTB provincial government and PT Aman Air signed a memorandum of understanding to prepare a seaplane waterbase at Bendungan Batujai in Central Lombok, intended to serve amphibious flights to five NTB island destinations, including Gili Trawangan.
The same February 2026 report is explicit about the catch: take-off and landing permits for Gili Trawangan itself had not been issued, because the island sits inside a conservation area. A waterbase and an MoU are preparation steps, not an operating certificate. Nothing dated after that confirms permits were granted or that a commercial schedule followed.
What Regulatory Steps Still Stand Between an MoU and a Working Schedule?
Indonesia’s Ministerial Regulation on Water Aerodromes, issued in August 2025, sets the framework any Lombok-Gili seaplane operator would have to clear before selling race-week seats. The rules treat a seaplane as a vessel while it is on the water and as an aircraft while it is airborne, mirroring ICAO guidance on the same point. In practice that means:
- The operator must hold an operational coordination agreement with AirNav Indonesia and the relevant maritime units before flying scheduled routes.
- The aircraft must coordinate with coastal radio stations and vessel traffic services on the water, the same way a boat operator does.
- The water aerodrome itself — Batujai, or any landing site near Gili Trawangan, Gili Air, or Gili Meno — must be certified or registered, not just designated on a map.
- Conservation-area clearance for Gili Trawangan sits outside the aviation framework entirely and depends on separate environmental permitting.
Each of those is a multi-agency process. None of them has a published completion date as of this writing, which is why any race-week rotation plan for 2027 has to be labeled a projection.
What Would Trigger Extra Rotations During a Mandalika Race Week?
If a certified operator is flying by 2027, a Mandalika event week is the obvious stress test for a seaplane add-on, for a simple capacity reason: a MotoGP or WorldSBK weekend at the Pertamina Mandalika International Street Circuit compresses several thousand arrivals into two or three days on roads and boat schedules that were not built for a spike. Existing Bali-Gili fast boats already run fixed departure slots — Padang Bai’s six daily runs at 08:00, 09:15, 10:30, 12:00, 13:30 and 15:00 being the densest example — and those slots fill on ordinary weekends, let alone race weeks.
A seaplane operator watching that demand curve would plan around three pressure points: getting spectators from Bali or Lombok’s airport to a Gili base before the first practice session, getting them back out same-day if they are not staying overnight, and absorbing the crowd that misses a boat slot and needs a same-day alternative. None of this is scheduled today. It is the logic an operator would use if the Batujai waterbase becomes operational before the 2027 calendar is set.
Projected Event-Week Timeline and Action (2027 Scenario)
| Timeline (before event week) | Projected action, if a seaplane operator is certified |
|---|---|
| 90+ days out | Race calendar confirmed; operator (if certified) opens booking window ahead of standard fast-boat release |
| 60 days out | Standard rotations continue; no added frequency yet |
| 30 days out | Demand signals from ticket sales inform whether extra rotations get added |
| 14 days out | Extra rotations, if approved, would be confirmed or cancelled based on booking pace |
| 7 days out | Weather forecasting narrows to firm go/no-go calls for each operating window |
| Event days | Morning (08:00-11:00) and early-afternoon (13:00-16:00) windows run tightest; no low-light water landings |
| Day after event | Return-leg demand spikes; standby capacity, if any, gets prioritized for it |
Every row above is a scenario, built from how event-driven transport typically scales elsewhere, not a confirmed operator plan.
What Would Pricing Pressure Look Like During a Race Week?
There is no published seaplane fare table for the Lombok-Gili corridor, and none should be invented. What can be said with evidence is that the existing boat market already shows event-style pricing behavior: private charter rates on nearby routes run several multiples of the shared fast-boat fare. A Padang Bai-Gili private charter for one to six passengers starts around IDR 3,500,000, against a shared seat on the same route at IDR 250,000-350,000 — roughly a ten-fold premium for guaranteed timing and space. If a seaplane option existed, race-week demand would likely push its early-bird fares up and its last-minute fares up further, following the same shape airlines and charter boats already show around fixed-date events. That is a pattern inference, not a quoted price.
Weather Windows and Race-Week Risk
Mandalika’s circuit calendar tends to land in the dry season, roughly May to September, when Lombok Strait visibility is better but afternoon trade winds pick up. A wet-season date brings a different risk: November-to-March squalls that cancel both seaplanes and fast boats without much notice. A reasonable projected operating window — morning 08:00-11:00 and afternoon 13:00-16:00, with no low-light water landings — leaves a real gap around dusk arrivals from race-day sessions that run late. Anyone planning around a hypothetical 2027 seaplane leg should build in a boat-based fallback for exactly that gap, the same way this site’s boat-and-road guide already does for 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will there be a seaplane option for the 2027 Mandalika race calendar?
Not confirmed as of September 2026. The NTB-Aman Air MoU (28 Feb 2026) covers waterbase preparation, not an issued operating certificate, and Gili Trawangan landing permits were still unissued at that report’s date because the island is a conservation area.
Should I hold off booking Mandalika-Gili transport and wait for a seaplane schedule?
No. Book the confirmed boat-and-road route for any 2026 or near-term 2027 date. A seaplane leg is a planning scenario, not a bookable product, and waiting risks losing seats on the fast-boat departures that do run fixed race-week schedules.
How would I know if a real 2027 seaplane schedule gets confirmed?
Watch for two dated milestones: a published take-off/landing permit for a Gili island site, and an operational coordination agreement between the operator and AirNav Indonesia. Neither had been reported as complete in the research used for this guide, dated 17-18 September 2026.