Qantas scraps flights in blow to Bali tourism industry

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Bali was dealt a major blow to its tourism industry on Tuesday as the Australian flag carrier Qantas announced cuts to its services to the holiday isle after last week's devastating bombing which left more than 180 people dead, the majority of them Australians.

However, a number of other airlines said that so far they had no plans to reduce their flights to Bali, or Indonesia in general.

Qantas said it had reassessed its services in the light of reduced demand over the coming months and was canceling two of its four weekly return services from Sydney to the Balinese capital Denpasar.

It would also halt the weekly Melbourne-Denpasar service, but would maintain Australia-Jakarta services and a weekly return service from Perth to Denpasar.

The carrier's executive general-manager sales and marketing John Borghetti was quoted by AFP as saying that many customers who had booked holidays to Bali were changing to destinations such as Fiji and Queensland, and that Qantas would redirect capacity to these routes.

But the airline would continue to assess demand and make adjustments to the schedule where required, he said.

Other airlines, including national flag carrier Garuda, said that they had as yet made no plans to reduce their flights to Bali or Indonesia.

Thai Airways International will maintain its daily flights to Bali despite a downturn in passenger numbers following the deadly bombing on the Indonesian island, a report said Tuesday.

The Nation newspaper said the flag carrier had, however, changed the model of Airbus aircraft used on the route, resulting in a reduction of seats from 320 to 250.

Thai Airways' president Kanok Abhiradee said it was still too early to assess the consequences of the Oct. 12 terrorist attack.

"Some thought it would be positive (for the Thai tourism industry). But others view it more negatively," he was quoted as saying.

Indonesian flag carrier Garuda said that it was waiting for an assessment whether to cut its international flights to and from Denpasar.

Between 60 percent and 70 percent of Garuda's international flights leave from Bali with Australia and Japan being its two major destinations.

Garuda flies to Australia 16 times weekly and to Japan 13 times weekly.

"We haven't decided on any route or flight frequency changes. Everything is still being assessed," Singgih, a senior official of the airlines told The Jakarta Post.

However, Garuda's business director Bachrul Hakim has indicated that it might reduce flights if the number of passengers on affected destinations continued to drop.

Although it does not have flights to Bali, German airline Lufthansa said it does not have any plans to reduce flights to Indonesia.

"So far, there are no plans to reduce flights, everything is normal," Ari Yunior, assistant manager sales and marketing at the Lufthansa Indonesia office, told the Post.

Lufthansa has daily flights from Frankfurt to Jakarta via Singapore.

Ari also said that Lufthansa had not experienced any increase in the number of passengers from Jakarta to Frankfurt after the bombing in Bali, saying that everything was business as usual.

Meanwhile, the World Tourism Organization (WTO) offered Tuesday to advise Indonesia on how to cope with such a blow to its tourist industry, an industry on which 80 percent of the Balinese economy is dependent.

WTO representative Geoffrey Lipman, visiting Australia for an ecotourism conference in Cairns, said Indonesia would be offered access to WTO research on responses to disasters in other tourist destinations.

The WTO has a wealth of information about reactions to events such as Turkish earthquakes, and the massacre of tourists at Luxor in Egypt.

He said he would meet with Indonesian officials after finishing his visit to Australia.