Batik Air cuts Bali service back to two flights a week

Batik Air has scaled back its direct flights to Bali from Canberra from three to two a week just two months after launching the service.

Flights on 162-seat Boeing B737-800s had been departing for Denpasar on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday since mid-June, but Batik Air decided last week to drop the Wednesday service for the time being.

Canberra is Batik Air’s fifth Australian destination.

Canberra Airport Head of Aviation Michael Thomson said Batik advised the airport last week after looking at their forward loads for the route.

Mr Thomson said it was expected that Batik would reinstate a third flight during holiday peaks.

“My sense is that in those peak periods over Christmas, they should be able to go very well with three flights, and then in quieter months, maybe they scale back until they get established,” he said.

Mr Thomson said the number of people travelling to Bali from the region should be able to support that number of flights.

He said Fiji Airways started with two flights a week before ramping up to three and were now in such a strong position that a fourth might be on the cards.

“These things take time,” Mr Thomson said.

“We saw it with Fiji that the first three months were a pretty hard slog, and then by month six, it started to turn, and they’re going very, very strongly now.”

There was usually a long lead time when it came to people planning overseas holidays.

“You don’t make these sort of decisions in a month’s time,” Mr Thomson said.

“You usually look a bit further out about where you’re going to go and when you’re going to go.

“It’ll take a little while till we see more and more people be aware of the service and more and more people book the service, and as that happens, then they’ll look to see how they can expand, I would think.”

Mr Thomson said Canberra’s appetite for international travel was undiminished.

“Per head of population, the propensity to travel overseas out of the ACT is greater than any other state or territory in Australia, other than WA, and I think that’s probably because it’s closer to go to Bali from Perth than it is to go to Sydney.

“Our propensity and our desire to travel internationally is very strong; our economy is still, comparatively, very strong and our income levels are some of the highest in Australia.

“So all those things line up pretty well for people wanting to travel internationally.”

Mr Thomson said the airport continues to hold talks with other carriers, but these things took time, and plane replacement continued to be an issue for airlines.

“We’re having some pretty good discussions with a couple of carriers at the moment, but to put it in perspective, the Fiji deal took four years from the first meeting,” he said.

There were opportunities on the horizon with Qantas receiving their new A321XLRs towards the end of next year and flagging a possible Canberra-Singapore route.

Comment was sought from Batik Air.