Powered by MOMENTUM MEDIA
australian aviation logo

Qantas to offer year-round nonstop flights between Sydney and Bali

written by australianaviation.com.au | December 21, 2016

737-838_VH-VXF_SYDNEY_14MAY2016_SETH JAWORSKI-2
Qantas will fly Sydney-Bali year-round with Boeing 737-800s. (Seth Jaworski)

Buoyed by the performance of its seasonal flights to Bali, Qantas has announced it will serve the popular tourist destination on a year-round basis from March 2017.

Qantas returned to Bali with scheduled services for the first time in seven years in late 2015, operating a total of 33 flights from Sydney with Boeing 737-800s between December 4 2015 and January 29 2016.

The oneworld alliance member has returned to the Sydney-Bali for a second year of seasonal flying, with daily flights that kicked off on December 14 2016 and scheduled to conclude in March 2017.

However, Qantas said on Wednesday it would continue flying the route four times a week beyond March 25.

Qantas International chief executive Gareth Evans said the combination of full-service Qantas and its wholly-owned budget carrier Jetstar offered travellers more choice for travel to Bali.

==
==

“That’s important for a destination which caters to different budgets and tastes,” Evans said.

“We’ve had a fantastic response to Qantas’ seasonal service, especially from our frequent flyers, so we felt the time was right to go year-round.

“For the past couple of years, we’ve been taking a more agile, flexible approach to our Asian network – responding to growing demand where we see it – and this is the latest example of that strategy in action.”

Although not mentioned in the Qantas statement on Wednesday, the airline has been taking capacity out of the domestic market in recent times, particularly due to the downturn in the mining activity in resources-rich states such as Queensland and Western Australia.

Those aircraft have, often, been redeployed on international routes, such as increased flights between Perth and Singapore with Boeing 737-800s, the return to the Melbourne-Tokyo Narita earlier in December and the upcoming resumption of nonstop flights between Sydney and Beijing with Airbus A330-200s.

In a trading update published on October 31, Qantas said capacity across the airline group, measured by available seat kilometres (ASK), was now forecast to increase 1.5-2 per cent in the first half, compared with previously issued guidance of 2-3 per cent.

All of that increase will be in overseas flying, given Qantas said domestic capacity across both its Qantas and Jetstar airlines was expected to decline one per cent in the half.

Qantas is part of an already crowded Sydney-Bali market featuring its wholly-owned low-cost unit Jetstar (the largest carrier between Australia and Bali with about 60 flights a week), local rival Virgin Australia and Garuda Indonesia.

While Virgin also uses a 737-800, Jetstar (787-8), Garuda and Indonesia AirAsia X (A330s) deploy widebodies on the route.

Indonesia AirAsia X cut its Australian services from Bali to Sydney and Melbourne in September as part of a network restructuring. The airline has since merged with short-haul sister carrier Indonesia AirAsia.

Indonesia AirAsia X axes Melbourne, Sydney routes

You need to be a member to post comments. Become a member today!

Comments (3)

  • Dante

    says:

    With Qantas using B737s on more international flights it needs to consider having two configurations, one for medium haul and one for short haul. I have recently flown the B737 in economy for the 5 hour flight between Perth and Singapore and it was one of the most uncomfortable flights I’ve flown as the available legroom was insufficient to straighten my legs. At the start of the flight Qantas mentions taking measures to prevent DVT yet they create an environment that increases the risk. The B737s used for flights longer than 3 hours should have at least one less row to allow the rest of the rows to be spread out. I know Qantas has been adding more rows to their B737 fleet to maximise profitability but one size doesn’t fit all.

  • John

    says:

    Qantas should start Perth Bali services, Garuda can sustain a a330 I don’t see Qantas not being able to support a 737. And Bali would have too much transit passengers from Perth elsewhere Via Bali, there more likely to be on our Jakarta service

  • haaw

    says:

    With so many Australians travelling to Bali, I find it surprising to find that Qantas went for so long without flights there. As John says, how come Garuda can do a widebody service to Perth?

    As someone who flies moderately but has never used Qantas, I really do find them a mystery and wonder how they manage to stay in business with such seemingly bizarre operations.

Comments are closed.

You don't have credit card details available. You will be redirected to update payment method page. Click OK to continue.