Community
28 March, 2025
Bali route booms
THE arrival of a competitor on the popular Cairns-Bali route has dramatically increased passenger numbers to and from the popular island destination.
AirAsia Indonesia started flying the route in August last year, operating three times a week, injecting more than 28,000 seats into the Cairns market.
This is on top of Jetstar’s four flights a week which has run for several years, amounting to about 40,000 passengers a year.
Cairns Airport chief executive officer Richard Barker said since AirAsia Indonesia entered the market in 2024, capacity on the Cairns-Bali route (Jetstar and AirAsia combined) had increased by 73 per cent.
“Similarly, overall passenger numbers on Cairns-Bali routes have grown by 62 per cent,” he said.
Mr Barker said both airlines had grown the market.
“So, Jetstar is still performing well, but AirAsia has grown the total market and part of that strategy was to actually feed people through Bali on the rest of the AirAsia network and that’s working. So people are coming through to Cairns via Bali on AirAsia’s network,” he said. Mr Barker said Jetstar flights to Bali were so full the airline had put on a bigger jet, the A321 Neo (from 186 seats to 232 seats).
He said AirAsia had created a hub at Denpasar airport and was drawing passengers through Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok.
Mr Barker said European backpackers on their bucket list came to Australia through Cairns via Thailand and Bali.
He said Fiji, as a world class destination, was proving popular with locals who had booked flights due to start next month but, more importantly, it was making it easier for North Americans to get to Australia on 16 hour flights from key airports in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas and Vancouver.
“Fiji Airways is very pleased with the early bookings and they tend to be looking at already adding additional frequency,” Mr Barker said.
He said numbers were bouncing back from Japan, after the recovery following COVID, with many school groups returning.
Indians were coming in on the Singapore Airlines wide-bodied jet.
Mr Barker said Cathay Pacific’s seasonal services had gone well.
“They’ve been pleased with how things have gone. And so, we’re looking forward to welcoming Cathay back for hopefully a longer season next summer,” he said.
Mr Barker said it had been a trial and he was “cautiously optimistic’ that they would return to a year-round service as they continued to rebuild.
He said Jetstar bookings from Christchurch (due to start next month) were looking good and Kiwis were also booking services onto Bali and Japan from Cairns, “so, it’s really starting to establish us as a northern gateway. So, that on one way up you can travel straight through, but you can stop over in Cairns on the way back or vice versa. So, it’s really helping to underpin (the service).”
On the domestic front Mr Barker said numbers were down because of the airlines lack of aircraft.
He said domestically it was “tough … that’s really a function of airline capacity. So, and that’s a common theme across Australia, so the planes are full. Anyone who’s travelled south from Cairns will know the planes are full.
“The good news is that the airlines are adding an additional capacity for what is going to be our peak season this winter,” Mr Barker said.
“So, we expect passenger numbers to build. It’s always our quietest time now, January, February and March.”
Mr Barker said there were extra seats for Easter “and so we’re expecting solid bookings through what is our peak travel period”.
