Indian travellers will have more flight options for Bali as India and Indonesia have revised their air service agreement.
While Indonesian carriers will get access to Bengaluru and Hyderabad, Indian airlines will be able to increase flights to Denpasar (Bali), Jakarta or launch new destinations in the country, it is learnt.
A MOU to increase flights was signed on Thursday ahead of Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto’s Delhi visit. This is crucial as 2025 has been designated as the India-ASEAN year of tourism. ASEAN refers to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations of which Indonesia is a key member.
India and Indonesia discussed connectivity in the delegation level talks in Delhi on Saturday. “Both sides emphasised the importance of people to people connect,” secretary (east), Ministry of External Affairs, Jaideep Mazumdar said in a press briefing. While there are 21 weekly flights between the two countries, a Delhi-Jakarta service will start soon, he said.
Second largest source market
India is the second largest source market for tourism in Bali behind Australia. In 2024 the island received over 5.5 lakh Indian tourists. On an overall basis India stood sixth in tourist arrivals in Indonesia in the first six months of 2024.
Lukman F. Laisa, acting Director General of Civil of Indonesia said the MOU will open up greater opportunities for airlines from both the countries. “We are optimistic that this development can provide positive contributions to other sectors such as economy, tourism, trade and business between the two countries,” he said.
Currently, IndiGo operates daily flights between Mumbai-Jakarta. Air India and IndiGo operate to Bali from Delhi and Bengaluru respectively.
Air India is considering increasing frequencies to Bali or introducing a new service to Jakarta. IndiGo too is exploring additional flights and aims to connect passengers from South East Asia to West Asia via its hubs. One such new destination under consideration is Medan where the GMR group runs an airport.
AirAsia Indonesia too is planning to launch flights to India in the summer schedule. At present Indonesian airlines do not operate to India.
Hotel Ritz-Carlton in Bali is seeing strong interest from the Indian market for leisure travel and destination weddings. Increased air connectivity will make Indonesia even more attractive to Indian visitors, an executive said.
According to MakeMyTrip’s travel trends report of August 2024, Indonesia was the fifth most searched international destination by Indian travellers. Bali, Dubai and Singapore also had the highest share of searches for homestays and villas, it said.
