The COVID-19 pandemic stalled numerous direct flights to Bali, but in the past year we have seen more and more airlines returning to the Island of Gods. The latest? Air New Zealand.
New Zealand’s flag carrier resumed its Auckland-Denpasar flight on Wednesday afternoon with 255 passengers arriving at the Ngurah Rai International Airport. The flight returned to Auckland at 6pm carrying 150 passengers.
“The return of Air New Zealand [to Ngurah Rai airport] is a breath of fresh air for the aviation sector and tourism industry after the Auckland-Denpasar ceased its operations for three years because of the pandemic,” the airport’s General Manager Handy Herydhitiawan said yesterday.
Air New Zealand’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner is scheduled to service the route every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday with estimated arrival time of 4pm and departure time of 6.30pm.
According to Handy, in 2019, AKA the good olden days before the pandemic, 131,381 Kiwis traveled to Bali. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, before the pandemic, New Zealand travelers on average spent around 10 to 13 days in Bali, spending US$1,376 on average per visit – on par with Europeans.
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