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.