INDONESIA and Australia agreed last week to increase air passenger capacity between the two countries by 70 per cent to 25,000 seats per week, in view of increasing demand.
Indonesia Ministry of Transportation director of Air Transportation, Edward Silooy, was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia daily as saying: “The current capacity of 14,800 seats is fully utilised, therefore, we have decided to increase it to 25,000 seats per week as demand continues to grow.
“Many Indonesians send their children to school in Australia, and there are a large number of Australians travelling to Indonesia for holidays,” he added.
Indonesia Air Carriers Association secretary general, Tengku Burhanuddin, said: “It is good that both governments have taken the move. The Indonesian airline industry needs more capacity.”
The increased capacity opens up opportunities for more Indonesian carriers to operate services to Australia.
While welcoming the move, the Indonesian travel trade has called on the government to prepare for the expected influx of arrivals from Australia.
The Seminyak, Bali director of sales and marketing, Gufron, told TTG Asia e-Daily: “Bali can still absorb the capacity, but the government needs to prepare the infrastructure to enable tourists to disperse to areas other than South Bali.
“The travel industry in East, North and West Bali should start aggressively promoting themselves to tourists to get a share of the pie.”
