Low-cost airline AirAsia marked its international return to the Island of the Gods as its Kuala Lumpur-Denpasar flight landed at the Ngurah Rai International Airport yesterday. It was AirAsia’s first international flight to Bali since the pandemic started about two years ago.
In a statement published yesterday afternoon, AirAsia announced the landing of flight AK-376 in Bali, carrying 106 passengers. The flight departed from Kuala Lumpur at 10:24am local time and arrived at Ngurah Rai Airport at 1:21pm.
“The Bali-Kuala Lumpur direct flight is one of the main routes for tourists from Southeast Asia and other Asia regions to enter Bali with AirAsia. In 2019 (before the pandemic), AirAsia Airline Group served 45 Kuala Lumpur-Bali flights per week and carried 482,000 tourists from various countries to enter Bali via Kuala Lumpur,” AirAsia Indonesia CEO Veronika Yosephine said.
Since the reopening of international flights to Bali, as well as the reactivation of visa on arrival entry, AirAsia saw its flight bookings to Bali increase by 232 percent, according to the statement. As of yesterday, more than 1,000 seats on the airline’s Kuala Lumpur-Bali flights have been booked for the month ahead.
AirAsia plans to operate the Kuala Lumpur-Bali route seven times a week as of April 1, up from three times a week currently.
In addition to that, the airline says it is also planning to reactivate its Bangkok-Bali route on April 12.
AirAsia Thailand previously announced that it would resume its Bangkok-Bali flight in April, although at the time no specific date was mentioned..
Recently, other airlines such as Jetstar Australia, KLM Royal Dutch, and Scoot have made their long-awaited return to Bali after the island was shut to international flights for some two years due to the pandemic.
Read also Direct international flights latest: AirAsia to join list with KL-Bali route relaunch
