Direct flights from Canberra to Bali take off again

Direct flights from Canberra to Bali have taken off once again — but this time, with a new carrier. 

From today, Virgin Australia will run three 160-seat return services per week to the Indonesian city of Denpasar, with the prospect of five flights per week during school holidays.

It makes them the first Australian airline to fly internationally from Canberra Airport, joining Fiji Airways and Qatar Airways in their overseas offerings.

Canberra Airport CEO Stephen Byron said he expected the new service would “go fantastically well”.

“Virgin’s been swamped with demand, it’s a great holiday destination,” he said.

“The market here is not just the city of Canberra, it’s the whole surrounds, which doubles the population.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said it was an exciting opportunity for the ACT.

“This is a service that I’m sure will be incredibly popular,” he said.

“I think of all my Facebook posts this year, the announcement of direct flights between Canberra and Bali attracted over 600,000 views.

Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia’s Deputy Head of Mission, Lintang Paramitasari, said the new service also offered more travel opportunities for international students.

Canberra’s struggle to keep international flights

The new service comes nearly two years after Batik Air axed its Canberra to Bali route, four months after launching. 

And indeed, Canberra has struggled to maintain international flight offerings over the past decade. 

There was a lot of fanfare when the city’s first international flights began in 2016, with Singapore Airlines flying to both Singapore and Wellington, New Zealand. 

But just two years later, the airline was forced to cancel its Canberra-Wellington connection, due to lacklustre passenger numbers.

The COVID-19 pandemic then served as the final nail in the coffin for Singapore Airlines, which axed its flights to Singapore in 2020.

Qatar Airways, which started flying from Canberra to Doha via Sydney in 2018, also ceased flights during the pandemic. 

After repeatedly pushing back plans to resume the service, the airline finally launched flights from Canberra to Doha via Melbourne in December.

Fiji Airways appears to have had a more positive run, with the airline still offering direct flights to Nadi from Canberra after launching the service nearly three years ago. 

Mr Barr said he was confident Virgin Australia’s offering would fair differently to Batik Air’s because of their “very considerable presence” in the Canberran market already.

“Virgin have already got staff here, they’ve got the check-in counters, they’ve got all of the lounge services,” he said.

‘If anybody’s going to make a go of this, it’s Virgin’

Aviation expert Neil Hansford was similarly optimistic, and said other airlines had already shown that short tourist routes could be viable. 

He said the new flight was comparable to Jetstar’s Newcastle to Bali service. 

“If it’s viable for Newcastle, which is an airport run by the local councils, I’m sure that the viability will be greatly enhanced by the management of Canberra Airport,” he said.

Mr Hansford said Virgin’s offering was very different to Batik Air’s previous Canberra to Bali service. 

“And they’re not unknowns. They’re part of the Australian aviation fabric. They’re trusted.

“There’s a lot of people with disposable income in Canberra who look to have a holiday, and the fact that they can just jump on in Canberra and go straight to their holiday will be very attractive.

“So if anybody’s going to make a go of this, it’s Virgin.”

To be truly competitive Virgin would need to keep prices comparable with flights out of Sydney, Mr Hansford said.

But he expects the convenience of flying straight out of the capital would be enticing to Canberrans. 

“My only question would be, is three days enough?” he said. 

“If you can make Fiji work, you’re going to make Bali work a whole lot easier.”

The future is flight

Mr Hansford said the next step would be for Virgin Australia to extend the route from Bali to Singapore.

“[That would] give Canberra a much more direct connection through to Europe and Asia than what it’s got now,” he said. 

“To me, this is a building block that if somebody puts the blocks behind it, this could be a very worthwhile route for Canberrans to be able to get out to the world without going to Sydney airports.” 

Mr Byron said he was aware “all eyes are on the performance” of the service to assess the viability of other international flights from Canberra Airport.

“What we think will happen is that this will be the first, and a confidence builder for our other ambitions,” he said.