It is named after I Gusti Ngurah Rai, a national Balinese hero who died on the 20th of November 1946 in a puputan against the Dutch.

The Airport is located on the southern end of Bali, 13 km south of Denpasar and 2.5km from Kuta.

Ngurah Rai Airport is the 3rd busiest airport in Indonesia after Jakarta’s Soekarno–Hatta International Airport and Surabaya’s Juanda International Airport. The airport underwent significant renovations from 2010 to 2013 and is now capable of dealing with between 5-15 million passengers a year.