Bali Becoming Very Busy According to Garuda Indonesia

A University colleague of mine rang me on Friday quite dismayed at the fact he could not obtain a flight to Bali and wondered if I could do anything. As if I am a travel agent!. Anyway, I rang my friend at Garuda Indonesia and was told that even though flight bookings had been heavy the situation was being addressed and was told that my colleague would have no problem obtaining a flight this week coming. I couldn’t understand why Garuda was so busy but in fact they are and a couple of the factors being the excellent package deals being offered and the other, the fantastic exchange rate for the Australian dollar at this time. Of course the other airlines servicing Bali have also been quite busy and this is good to see especially for the Balinese who suffered a slump in business due to previous unfortunate occurrences that deterred people from going to the island. Now, the inbound traveller figures are outstanding and reminds me of the tourist boom time of the late 80’s and 90’s when Bali was so busy you virtually needed traffic lights on the footpaths.

Here’s a related article from Bali Discovery about the additional flight situation to Bali:

Garuda Indonesia is addressing the strong demand for Bali holidays by adding extra capacity from Darwin, Melbourne and Sydney, with further additions from Perth anticipated.

The number of Australians traveling to Bali in the first four months of 2008 increased by 25.74% against the same period last year. According to Garuda’s Sydney office, the largest growth in Australian traffic to Bali in Q1 2008 is from Perth and Darwin (75% and 71% respectively), 44% from Victoria/Tasmania an 49% from New South Wales/ Australian Capital Territory.

In order to meet this burgeoning demand Garuda Indonesia will add additional flights to their Darwin, Melbourne and Sydney to Bali routes over the coming few months.

On June 25th, a third Darwin flight will commence, departing each Wednesday and adding an additional 134 seats to the route.

This will be followed on July 22nd by the introduction of a fourth Melbourne service operating from Bali to Melbourne on Tuesdays and returning to Bali on Wednesdays.

On September 2nd, two more services will be added to the Australian network. These will include a sixth flight on the Denpasar-Sydney route and a fifth flight between Melbourne and Bali.

Poerwoko Soeparyono, General Manager Australia & Southwest Pacific, Garuda Indonesia, said, “the introduction of these new services will bring an additional 1,013 seats to the Australian routes which should go some way towards addressing the growing demand for Bali as a holiday destination.”

“Bali is enjoying all-time record visitor arrivals in 2008 and, being Visit Indonesia Year, it is hoped that this will extend to Indonesian destinations beyond Bali also,” Poerwoko added.

The additional services will bring Garuda Indonesia’s weekly Australian operation to 31 flights per week from four Australian ports of Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Darwin with further capacity expected on the Perth route as soon as the new Boeing 737-800NG aircraft arrive.

Details of the Additional Flights

Effective July 22nd

A new flight departing Melbourne on a Wednesday, will bring the total frequency of flights from Melbourne to Bali to four, departing Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. The new flight will depart Bali on Wednesday at 11:55 p.m. arriving in Melbourne on Thursday morning at 7:25 a.m. and departing again at 9:55 a.m. arriving in Bali at 1:55 p.m. local time.

Effective September 2nd

Sydney will receive two new flights which will operate on a Tuesday and Friday, but its Thursday flight will be redirect to Melbourne as a further additional service. Thus Melbourne frequency will increase from four to five flight per week and depart daily except Monday and Saturday, and Sydney frequency will increase to six flights per week and operate daily except Thursday with Airbus A330 aircraft. The new Tuesday and Friday flights will depart Bali just after midnight at 00:25 a.m. and arrive in Sydney at 7:55 a.m. the following day and depart Sydney again at 10:30 a.m. and arrive in Bali at 3:00 p.m. local time.