Qantas scraps flights in blow to Bali tourism industry

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.