Jakarta - The number of regular international routes served by I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport - Bali increased with the operation of the Bangkok-Bali roundtrip flight route. The route was officially re-served by an airline from Thailand, Thai AirAsia, on Tuesday (12/04) afternoon.
The inaugural flight on this route with flight number FD396 departed from Don Mueang Airport, with 128 passengers and landed on the runway of I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport at 11.53 WITA after a four-hour journey.
The plane then flew back to Bangkok at 12:56 WITA with 29 passengers on board using flight number FD397. According to the schedule, the flight will be served twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays.
AP I’s President Director Faik Fahmi welcomed the route reopening. “I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport has added to the list of regular international flight routes. After opening Perth route in the past week, the airport reopens flights to and from Bangkok. As fellow tourist destinations, we hope that the reconnection of these two cities will further increase the interest of the global community to return to travel safely and comfortably, in accordance with health protocols,” he said.
“Thailand is the third Southeast Asian country that has reopened flights to Bali after Singapore and Malaysia. Based on the data, currently, several airlines have obtained route permits, and a number of airlines are in the process of reactivation of their flight routes to Bali through the Transportation Ministry. Hence, at the end of this week, there will also be another reopening of international flight route. We are very optimistic about the potential of the implementation of regular international flights to and from Bali,” he continued.
With the route operation, currently, I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport is serving nine regular international routes to Singapore, Melbourne, Sydney, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Doha, Istanbul, Perth, and Bangkok. The airlines serving regular international flights to and from Bali include Garuda Indonesia, Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Jetstar Asia, Scoot, KLM, Jetstar, AirAsia, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, and most recently Thai AirAsia. A total of 11 national and foreign airlines serves 9 flight routes to and from Bali.
The company’s official website said that AirAsia expressed optimism in the trend of restoring public interest in traveling. “Historically, Bangkok and Bali has been popular destinations with an average demand of over 80 percent in tourism volume before the pandemic. The inaugural post-pandemic flight shows that the trend of Thai tourists visiting Bali has slowly recovered. 128 passengers, almost all of whom are foreigners and Thai nationals, were on board” AirAsia Group’s official release said.
Since the return of regular international flight routes at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport on February 3, 2022, until Monday (11/04), 64,361 passengers and 513 aircraft movements arriving and departing from Bali, with details of 40,806 arriving passengers and 259 aircraft movements, and 23,555 departing passengers and 254 aircraft movements.
