Garuda Indonesia plans to bolster tourism in Bali by adding direct flights to the USA, France, and India.
Garuda Wants To Fly To Two U.S. Cities, Two Indian Cities, And Another Destination In Europe…But Is Garuda Indonesia USA Service Remotely Possible?
Per the Jakarta Post, state-run Garuda Indonesia plans to introduce direct flights from Bali to:
- Los Angeles
- San Francisco
- Paris
- Mumbai
- New Delhi
Garuda President Director Irfan Setiaputra told an Indonesian House of Representatives committee responsible for tourism:
“Garuda and the Tourism Ministry have agreed that the only way to boost foreign tourist visits is by introducing direct flights to Denpasar. Hopefully, we can make it through this crisis and start direct flights from countries that have large spending capabilities.”
The move would mark a shift concentrating longhaul travel in Bali instead of Jakarta. While Jakarta may be the business hub of Indonesia, Bali is the tourist hub. Struggling Garuda Indonesia would stake its fortunes on tourism.
A CNBC article which hinted of the new route announcements last month included another quote from Setiaputra:
“Because if a Parisian, a Frenchman spends US$10,000 on his vacation in Bali, there is no problem if Garuda loses US $ 500 per passenger, because we can get US$10,500 in this country.”
Uh…?
I don’t get the numbers, but I’ll assume he means the flight costs $1,000?
In any case, it seems like Garuda is perfectly willing to lose money on flying in hopes of making it up in overall tourism spending. It’s an interesting proposition…certainly one that underscores precisely why national airlines are often about far more than profit.
CONCLUSION
COVID-19 may seem like an odd time for airlines to start new routes, particularly routes geared toward tourism. Frankly, I don’t expect to see any of these new routes to take to the skies. Yet Garuda should continue to think outside of the box as its present strategy was not working, even before the pandemic.
image: Garuda Indonesia
Bali doesn’t have the high-end capacity to make that strategy work. For a mass market there are limited 4 and 5 star properties ( St Regis, Hyatt, IC) and the really expensive places are tiny.
Bali is highly dependent on Australia, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan, Korea ( and none of them likely to produce tourists this year, and maybe even next)
It’s sad to see the Balinese economy devastated by this disease.
It truly is. As you may recall, I went there last year for the first time and really loved it. I think the problem for Garuda’s idea is that few Americans will be wiling to travel on an ultra-longhaul flight when they can find other similar destinations much closer to home.
Why no direct flights from the capital of Europe: Brussels, kingdom of Belgium
I totally agree with you Thai airways fly 6 times a week to Brussels
Garuda is maybe one of the best companies, and great service but much to expensive. Between 30% and 50% ( business class)
Compere price with Thai ,turkish qatar.
Cool! I think not only Bali but also nationally fixing the sanitation and toilet system will help too, significantly.
Yes !!
Garuda cannot do it alone. It has to have the full support of the ministry of tourism to promote Indonesia in LA n Frisco. Maybe a year long promotion? Full government support is essential, like bailing out Garuda n subsidizing their air fare to make it cheaper. At the current situation it’s not going to be easy. It will be an uphill climb for Garuda. I pray Garuda will make it, and we see a resurgence of tourism in Bali, with God’s help.
I would totally pick a one-stop with Singapore or Emirates over a direct to Bali if I were one of these high-end spending tourists. Long flights are hard. Like EWR-SIN, direct flights mainly cater to the business community and not the tourist community.
I on the other hand would prefer a 12 hour direct, instead of the 18 to 20 hours I have to do now when going to Bali.
If Garuda is actually being sincere about flights being loss leaders then I have to give them props. Many airlines, even flag carriers, avoid such moves. Also, I thought Garuda only had a few 777’s, which would make scheduling difficult.
Back in 2013 I was at an Asian festival in Sacramento, CA and the Indonesian Tourism group was there pimping Indonesia travel. They were also handing out questionnaires. One of the questions literally was whether the lack of a direct flight to Indonesia impacted your decision to travel to Indonesia. So this has been on their minds for a while now.
I probably wouldn’t do it. I like flying EVA to Bali. It’s faster from the U.S. than routing through Singapore or Dubai and EVA’s service is good in all three cabin configurations which I have tried. Obviously Royal Laurel was the best and Economy the worst. Premium Economy was worth the extra $$$ over Economy for the 12 hour SFO-TPE leg. Plus in 2016 TPE-DSP was a Hello Kitty route so I got to cross that off my #AVGeek list.
Not realistic!. Mass Tourism is the answer. The only tourist that can fill hotel rooms including budget hotels are short haul tourist. That is the answer for all countries especially at this trying times.
For short haul tourist its cheaper and convenient for them to travel nearby.
During good times YES! sounds ideal for GARUDA but nowadays during COVID 19, you got to be realistic!! Far Flung tourist to come to Bali now??. Wrong strategy!
My favorite hotel in the world remains the Four Seasons Sayan. There are many other incredible Indonesian hotels to stay at not just in Bali. Then there are some of the world’s best scuba diving places in the world. American friend who I have urge to visit Indonesia are never disappointed. Jakarta is a very challenging city to navigate given the traffic, so I often tell people to skip there and go to central Java. Being of a certain age, I remember back in the 1980’s fly Garuda to Bali out of LAX with stops in Honolulu and Biak. That was a long haul! The Indonesians are rightly trying to find ways for especially Americans to “discover” the world’s 4th largest country that has an amazing diversity of cultures and geography.
I remember the Garuda 747 to DPS in the early 80’s, Kuta had just recently obtained electricity. Very inexpensive. Also remember that Garuda was banned from the US because of it’s safety and maintenance record.
Bali just isn’t the place where very many people are going to go spend $10,000.
Agreed.
No but it is more centrally located for divers to jump off of to go to Saluwesi or Komodo or Lombok or Raja Ampat. I have done three of those for diving. And I have stayed at the IHG Holiday Inn every time. Nothing special but it has a bed and I can go out for an authentic meal and it’s close to the airport. One time I did layover at the Conrad Bali for a few days on the way out but wasn’t that impressed.
Pre-COVID, what was the limitation on direct flights to Denpasar from the US? Seems like something that could have made sense 2-3 days per week? Can they not land huge 777s there?
I saw China Airlines 747s taking off there in addition to 777s from Garuda and other carriers.
Long haul routes to Europe are already taxing Garuda profitability a lot. So far the only profitable route to Europe is Amsterdam. Garuda’s profitable routes only to Middle East, East Asia, Regional South East Asia and Australia.
Routes to US will not be profitable, since Garuda still do not have permit for Japan or Hong Kong Authority to use route to US via Japan or Hong Kong. Direct route to LA will not be profitable enough, and the lessons from LA- Jakarta route in 90’s already shown that. That route also via Denpasar, and still not making enough money.
This talk by Garuda’s new CEO is nothing more checking the water.
I live in San Francisco and have a friend who lives in Paris. We will jump on this one and rendez vouz in Bali if this option comes into existence… Music to my ears since there are so few places Americans can travel to right now. Bali is a huge yoga destination for Californians so I think they will actually do quite well with a direct flight bypassing Jakarta which is exactly what most of my Californians friends want…
Eh…you can already bypass Jakarta from SFO flying EVA and a bunch of other airlines.
I think this is a direct flight as mentioned which probably is DPS-NRT/HND-LAX on a B777-300ER, which was also proposed by the the previous management back in 2017
I’m confused by the negative comments about this flight. Being from LA I would jump at the chance for a non-stop flight to Bali! I would never pick a route with a stop over a non-stop route. I hope this comes to fruition soon and I will definitely be visiting Bali much more frequently.
Lol. Its just a political statement. The president director is a new guy. He needs to gain favour from the incumbent power holder which one of the programme is promoting tourism, despite the pandemic. In truth, garuda already laying off employees in great number, salary cutting and facing bankruptcy.
I couldn’t agree more with your comment.
Spend USD 10K on a holiday in Bali? For real? I think the volume of tourist that goes to Bali are mostly backpackers.. Not going to work out and also the long haul flight requires tonnes of fuel which is not even close to economical. -Ex-Pilot