Qantas and Jetstar add Bali and Jakarta routes in first deal in 15 years
Qantas takes 4,500 of the new seats, and Jetstar's Bali flight becomes Western Sydney's fourth international route.
Qantas and its low-cost arm Jetstar will open three new nonstop routes between Australia and Indonesia. They follow an updated bilateral air services agreement, the first update to the arrangement in 15 years, which permits an additional 5,000 seats a week between the two countries.
Qantas absorbs 4,500 of those seats. It will fly daily from Perth to Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta from December 14, and daily from Brisbane to Ngurah Rai in Bali from August 1, 2027. Both services use the Boeing 737-800.
Jetstar takes the remainder, adding a daily Western Sydney International (Nancy Bird Walton) Airport to Bali service from March 15, and the agreement also allows services to and from Western Sydney International. It becomes the airport's fourth international route, following Air New Zealand to Auckland, Singapore Airlines to Singapore Changi and VietJet Air to Ho Chi Minh City.
Western Sydney International opens later this year, and Jetstar has already planned domestic routes from it to the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Brisbane. The Bali flight leaves Sydney on a modest morning departure, with a mid-afternoon departure from Bali for the return.
On the Perth to Jakarta leg, Qantas will compete head-to-head with Batik Air. The new agreement has been submitted to the Australian International Air Services Commission for approval, so the dates remain plans until that process is complete.
Qantas expects its share of the new capacity to be fully utilised by the beginning of November next year. Jetstar's addition came as a surprise in the coverage of the deal, since it had not previously been tied to nonstop international flying from the new airport.
Alongside the two new routes, Qantas hopes to lift its four weekly Melbourne to Jakarta flights to daily. Between March 28 and October 31, that route also shifts from the Airbus A330-200 to the Airbus A321XLR.
What the capacity increase covers
Bali remains one of the most popular international destinations for Australians. More than 1.6 million passengers visited the island last year, according to Executive Traveller, and every major Australian city already has nonstop flights to it.
The added 5,000 weekly seats are meant to supply capacity on high-demand Bali routes, and the agreement also lets airlines open up new regional destinations across Indonesia.
From Bali, nonstop options run to 13 Australian destinations, including Adelaide, Avalon, Brisbane, Cairns, Canberra, Darwin, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Newcastle, Perth, Sunshine Coast and Sydney. From Jakarta, nonstop flights go to Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
Australian Transport Minister Catherine King welcomed the announcement. "Jakarta and Denpasar are already popular holiday destinations for Australians, so being able to increase that capacity and opening up new destinations across Indonesia will be welcome news for everyone," she said.
The agreement is also intended to foster increased business and trade between the two countries, alongside the leisure traffic that dominates the Bali routes.
The carriers competing for Indonesian traffic
Qantas and Jetstar are only a handful of the airlines flying between Australia and Indonesia. A growing list of Asian carriers also serve the corridor, including Garuda, AirAsia, TransNusa and Batik Air.
For travellers heading to Bali, our guide to the island's best hotels covers everything from treetop suites in the jungle to cliff-edge villas by the sea, and the new Brisbane and Western Sydney flights widen the ways of getting there.
The A321XLR change on Melbourne to Jakarta is the only aircraft swap in the plans. The Perth and Brisbane routes stay on the 737-800, and the Melbourne type will continue to operate four domestic routes.
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