Australian Airlines to add services to Bali

Australian Airlines to add services to Bali

Agence France-Presse, Sydney

Fledgling carrier Australian Airlines demonstrated faith on Tuesday that Bali will bounce back as Australia's preferred holiday destination by announcing plans to increase flights to Denpasar.

It will also increase its fleet to six with the addition of two Boeing 767-300s, enabling it to increase its services to the Indonesian resort island from Sydney and Melbourne.

Australian Airlines, launched last October as a discount offshoot of national flag carrier Qantas Airways Ltd., said by late July it would operate three services a week between Bali and Sydney and one a week between Bali and Melbourne.

"Following recent discussions with Indonesian and Balinese government representatives on ways in which the Qantas group can assist the recovery of Bali's tourism industry, we have decided that the time is right to add Denpasar to our schedule," Australian Airlines chief executive Denis Adams said in a statement.

Bali's tourism industry, which was dependent to a large extent on Australians, remains in deep depression in the aftermath of last October's terrorist bombings which claimed more than 190 lives, including 88 Australians.

The airline also plans to commence return international services between Cairns and Sydney six times a week from the middle of the year,

"These flights will enable us to offer seamless transits at Cairns International Airport for our inbound passengers traveling from Asia and Japan," Adams said.

Australian is currently operating 30 flights a week between Cairns and six Asian destinations as well as connecting services for international passengers between Cairns and the Gold Coast.

The airline is in preliminary discussions with Sabah authorities and may commence services from Cairns to Kota Kinabalu and then on to Singapore.

Australian is also considering services between Cairns and Shanghai from October this year. Qantas withdrew from China services in 2001.

It says the response to services have been extremely positive since Australian was launched in October last year.

Full details and Bali schedules are expected to be announced by the end of the month.