Ansett to serve Brisbane-Bali route
Ansett to serve Brisbane-Bali route
JAKARTA (JP): Australian private airline Ansett International
will start its first international operations from Brisbane, with
a weekly Brisbane-Bali nonstop service on Saturday nights
starting April 4, the airline said yesterday.
Ansett International general manager Craig Wallace said the
new service aimed to meet an increasing demand for flights
between Brisbane and Bali.
"Passenger traffic from Brisbane to Bali has increased 180
percent in the last 10 years. One-week holidays are the most
popular Bali holidays from Brisbane and a weekly flight caters to
this demand," he said.
"The service will also reduce travel time by cutting the need
for Brisbane travelers to fly via other airports," he added.
Ansett general manager in Indonesia Con Korfiatis said Ansett
would run Indonesian promotions in Australia, and national
activities with an art and culture theme, to help with its
marketing in 1998.
The Indonesian government had declared 1998 the year of art
and culture, he said, and Ansett believed this campaign would
help attract more Australian tourists to Indonesia.
Ansett has been operating for 62 years and operates 90 jet
aircraft. The company had its inaugural flight to Jakarta and
Kuala Lumpur in February 1996 and operates a daily service from
Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur and Sydney.
Ansett has been running services to Australia from Bali since
1993 and has eight scheduled flights a week linking Bali and
Australia.
Ansett also operates a international network which includes
Jakarta, Denpasar, Osaka, Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai and Kuala
Lumpur.
Suspend
Meanwhile Ansett said yesterday it joined rival air carrier
Qantas in suspending direct services between Australia and South
Korea because of the Asian economic meltdown.
Wallace said South Korea's economic crisis had made the
airline's twice-weekly service to Seoul, which begun in 1996,
commercially unviable.
Ansett flights to South Korea, from the Australian cities of
Sydney and Brisbane, will cease starting Feb. 8, AP reported.
Qantas announced last week that it would suspend its four
weekly flights to South Korea starting Feb. 1.
Wallace said his company's decision was based on the sharp
fall in the value of the South Korean currency and tightened
restrictions on the promotion of outbound tourism from South
Korea.
"We will continue to monitor the situation in Korea and are
maintaining a sales presence in that market in the hope that the
economic situation there recovers as soon as possible, allowing a
resumption of services to be considered," he said.
Tourism industry leaders said the decision would have
implications for the industry.
"However, we acknowledge the airlines' need to make tough
commercial decisions which may not always be in the best
interests of Australian tourism," John Morse, managing director
of the Australian Tourist Commission, said. (gis)