Australian Airlines to mark first anniversary of direct flights to Bali
Australian Airlines to mark first anniversary of direct flights to Bali
Dewi Anggraeni, Contributor/Melbourne
For travellers, the news that Australian Airlines plans to celebrate the first anniversary of its direct flights to Denpasar at the end of this month immediately gives rise to gleeful hopes of discounted fares.
Generally speaking, when we think of holidays, the business intricacies that make them possible rarely enter our mind. We, the consumers, just want to get there and start enjoying ourselves.
This is especially so now, when life is becoming more hectic and there is a plethora of package holidays to choose from. We are becoming ever more demanding, eager to maximize the fun and the amount of time in which we are having fun, while simultaneously minimizing the costs involved.
Of course, all this is supported by a vast industry, and the individuals too numerous to mention working in the various sectors whose jobs are to make sure that we get exactly what we want.
One of the frontline industries, of course, is the travel business. It is a big business that involves big capital outlay and big risks, especially unpredictability.
The razor-sharp competition in this industry undoubtedly benefits the consumers as companies are forced to go all out to win our custom by offering heaven on earth at rock-bottom prices.
However, things can easily go wrong. We have witnessed how the bottom can fall out of the travel industry after terrorist attacks, or things as unpredictable as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) or Avian Flu, which have nearly knocked the tourism business in Asia on the head over these last couple of years.
After the Bali bombing in October 2002, for instance, Australia's Qantas Airlines was forced to reduce its flights to the island for lack of business. It was then compelled to streamline its Bali flight network and withdraw its direct Melbourne-Denpasar service. Sydney became the temporary hub for its eastcoast flights to Bali.
By December, however, the airline was planning an increase in the number of its flights to Denpasar for the coming months. Unfortunately this plan was thwarted by other events that adversely affected the tourism industry: the 2003 Gulf War and SARS.
While Qantas could not afford to add flights to Bali, its fully-owned, independent offshoot, Australian Airlines, decided to take the risk.
Since its launch as an international carrier on Oct. 27, 2002, Australian Airlines, with its four wide-bodied 767-300 aircraft, has been focussing on leisure travellers, flying holiday routes between the north Queensland city of Cairns and Asian cities like Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka.
They had then been focussing on flying inbound tourists into Australia, transporting them to Cairns and the Gold Coast in Queensland.
Once in Australia, Qantas domestic services would then fly them on to other destinations in the country. Within months, the company's routes were quickly expanded to include outbound travellers as well.
The airline then made a decision to extend its network to Bali and Sabah. Gloria Staines, Australian Airlines CEO, saw a strong likelihood of a rapid resurgence in Bali-bound tourism, and added a once a week non-stop Melbourne-Denpasar flight, which was launched on June 27, 2003.
The risks taken paid off. Barely a month later, they added a further three flights to the weekly of Sydney-Denpasar-Singapore service.
And when a fifth aircraft came on the scene, the airline expanded its network and added another non-stop Melbourne- Denpasar flight to bring the total to five flights a week -- two from Melbourne and three from Sydney.
The number of passengers, inbound as well as outbound, continues to rise. The first three months of the year saw an increase of over 10 percent.
Australian Airlines' success may lie in the fact that it serves the leisure market, and therefore believes that vacationing passengers do not particularly like playing second fiddle to business passengers.
Like their business counterparts, they also want to spend as little time as possible getting to their destinations. And being provided with a full cabin service with meals, drinks and movies, like normal passengers, is an added bonus.
Sheree, a Melbourne financial consultant, told The Jakarta Post that she and her friends did not appreciate having to wait hours for connecting flights when on holiday.
"Just because we are on holiday doesn't mean we have all the time in the world," she said, "When we have a week off, we want to spend as much of that week holidaying, not waiting at airports. With direct Melbourne-Denpasar flights, we can leave work on Friday, catch a 7 p.m. flight and arrive in Bali the same evening. We then maximize our holiday time until the last evening of our leave."
Since a fair slice of the clientele are teachers and students, the peak passenger load times are the school holidays.
Fortunately, there is a slight difference between mid-year holidays in Melbourne and Sydney, and this helps spread out the load.
And teachers and students are no less keen than other vacationers to start their holidays as soon as they walk into the airport.