10 August 2010

Airlines fight to grab Indonesia capacity

Little wonder that Australian and Indonesian airlines are scrambling to grab additional capacity available to Indonesia.

Latest figures show that Bali remains on track to achieve a record 2.5 million visitors in 2010 after half-year figures to June reached 1.14 million Ã¢â¬' an increase of 12.86 percent over the previous year.

Australian visitors are leading the Bali boom and clearly the airlines feel there is more to come.

Qantas has applied to the International Air Services Commission for 3898 seats a week from December 10 for Jetstar services.

Aussie newcomer Strategic Airlines has applied to the commission for 1716 seats a week for two-class A320 services.

And now Pacific Blue has posted an application for 2340 seats which it will use to launch 13 weekly services a week between Australia and Indonesia using 180-seat Boeing 737s.

The airlines are expected to target Bali for the new services.

The commission must now decide how to allocate the available capacity - which is about half what the airlines are asking for.

IndonesiaÃ¢â¬â¢s Batavia Air and Mandala Airlines have also signaled their interest in taking up some of the matching capacity available to Indonesian airlines.