Inaugural flight brings Aussies back to Bali

Dewi Anggraeni, Contributor, Melbourne, Australia

What comes first, the availability of frequent flights to a holiday destination, or the large numbers of passengers who want to go there?

Since we live in an era where market research is conducted for any project worth its commercial salt, that is no longer a chicken-and-egg question. If the potential market is visible on the horizon, the product will be made available.

However, nothing is without risk. But then, that is where the excitement is.

Last November, following the Bali bombing disaster, Australia's Qantas Airways had to reduce the number of flights from Australia's east coast to Denpasar, because of the fall in demand.

Toward the end of December however, the same airlines promised to increase the number of flights to Denpasar in the next few months, to meet extra demand. Unfortunately, the following months were fraught with other tourism dampeners, namely the 2003 Gulf War and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

So when the promise is finally met, we can take it that Australians are returning to Bali in reasonable numbers.

Australian Airlines, a fully-owned subsidiary company of Qantas Airways, has announced its inaugural Melbourne-Denpasar flight on Friday, June 27.

It will be the first time Qantas, through Australian Airlines, has provided a direct Melbourne-Denpasar flight, giving its passengers from Victoria state easy access without having to fly to Sydney first. And it appears to have been a good commercial decision.

Sonya Sandham, Qantas Airways' corporate communications advisor, says the Australian Airlines' June 27 Melbourne-Denpasar flight was fully booked -- just six weeks after it was first announced. "So is the next one on July 4," Sandham adds.

Since its launch as an international carrier in October 2002, Australian Airlines, with its four wide-body 767-300 planes, has been focusing on leisure travelers, who fly holiday routes between the north Queensland town of Cairns and Asian cities like Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka. In June it will expand to Bali in Indonesia and Sabah in East Malaysia.

With holidays in mind, the Bali flight service has obviously been carefully planned. It has not alienated its Sydney passengers, because it begins in Sydney, departing for Melbourne at 4:35 p.m., then at 7 p.m. it departs from Melbourne for Denpasar. While Sydney passengers may have to finish work a little earlier, 7 p.m. is a better departure time for those in Melbourne, provided they are not stuck in Friday traffic, city to airport freeway notwithstanding.

Unlike Qantas flights, Australian Airlines only has one passenger cabin, all economy-class. The company's acting Chief Executive Officer Andrea Staines, agrees that this is one of the aspects which differentiate Australian Airlines flights from those of Qantas, which have three cabin classes.

"Qantas serves business as well as leisure passengers, and they need their business and first class cabins," she says.

"Our start-up base was focusing on in-bound tourists into Australia. We were flying them into Cairns and the Gold Coast in Queensland. They then fly on to other destinations in Australia with Qantas. Now we're adding to our portfolio of routes, where we are taking outbound travelers."

With the indication that there is a resurgence of Bali-bound tourists, Staines says that Australian Airlines will remain flexible, starting with Melbourne-Denpasar once a week non-stop. And beginning July 25, they will begin three flights weekly on the Sydney-Bali-Singapore route.

The four flights a week to Bali is a start, Staines says. "No one is quite sure how quickly tourism in general will rebound after the effect of SARS. But with a fifth aircraft coming in, in October, have the flexibility to increase frequency on the routes where the demands have grown back fastest," she adds.

Australian Airlines flights have been designed to give maximum comfort to their leisure passengers, from families, honey- mooners, backpackers to corporate-incentive travelers. Their holiday and special packages are handled by Qantas Holidays.

The inaugural Melbourne-Denpasar flight on June 27 may well herald the end of the tourism slump in Bali, because it implies that there is a swell of tourists returning to the paradise island, at least from Australia. Considering that in 2000 alone, of the 1,412,839 recorded number of foreign visitors to the island, 231,739 (29.05 percent) were Australians, it is certainly a prospect not to be indifferent about.