Key points
Melbourne Airport celebrated as Malindo Air’s inaugural service to Bali departed this morning carrying 162 travellers on a Boeing 737-800.
Malindo Air is the third airline to service the Melbourne- Bali route, and will operate seven times per week, adding a combined 118, 260 seats flying both-ways annually.
Melbourne Airport Chief of Aviation, Simon Gandy, said he was delighted to welcome another new international airline and to see increased capacity on the ever popular Melbourne-Bali route.
“We are thrilled to secure Malindo Air at Melbourne Airport, in a move that creates more choice and frequency for travellers flying to and from Indonesia and beyond,” said Mr Gandy.
“We are extremely excited by this prospect, considering passenger traffic between Victoria and Indonesia has been growing at 8.6 per cent, per annum, in the past five years. This highlights we are rapidly filling current capacity, the strong travel demand in the route and reinforces Victoria’s fascination with the leisure hotspot.
“The full service carrier also opens up connections to Indonesia and beyond, with opportunities for Victorians to explore other Indonesian leisure destinations, such as the world’s largest Buddhist temple in Yogyakarta, Central Java. The flight continues onwards to Kuala Lumpur and the airline also offers good flight connections to the South East Asia regions and the Indian sub-continent.
“We are delighted with the development of new services and routes that boost the airport’s network. We are seeing more airlines introduce new services and more frequency into Indonesia. Combined with this new service by Malindo Air, we are now able to offer up to half a million seats each way annually into Indonesia, demonstrating the strength and resilience of the destination.”
“To keep up with international passenger growth over the next decade, we are focused on improving our airport facilities to ensure we continue to meet the needs of our travellers. The most important part of our investment in the coming years will be our proposed third runway, which will enable us to provide even more options for Victorian travellers flying off to see the world.”
Malindo Air’s daily service will arrive at 4.40am and depart at 7.00am.