00:00 Bharti Air will be flying direct from the capital to Denpasar three times a week for
00:07 around $600 return.
00:09 "Moving forward, if the market is good, then we may increase to more frequency, maybe four
00:15 or daily."
00:16 The move follows the arrival of Fiji Airways, which brought the first post-pandemic international
00:22 flight to the capital last year.
00:24 "Having new international carriers obviously is quite exciting and we'll be working with
00:29 a couple of other carriers and hopefully expanding that network."
00:33 It's not quite a return to pre-COVID levels where both Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways
00:38 operated bigger planes and more frequent, even daily, routes.
00:42 "What makes this different is the size of the aircraft, the number of flights, the popularity
00:46 of the destination."
00:48 The government says these smaller planes, operated by smaller carriers which can offer
00:52 connections to other destinations, is more realistic.
00:55 "One of the challenges with the Singapore Airlines flight that came through to Wellington
01:00 was a 270 seat plane.
01:03 That's a lot of seats."
01:04 The number of international visitors to Canberra is yet to rebound to pre-COVID levels, unlike
01:09 the domestic market.
01:10 While the success of these routes will rely heavily on Canberrans leaving the country,
01:15 there are hopes for some inbound traffic from international students.
01:18 "They're visiting friends and relatives, part of that, so when their family comes over to
01:21 see them, check out where they're living, but also coming across for graduation and
01:25 things like that."
01:27 Experts warn it's hard to forecast demand.
01:29 "It is very difficult in a market like Canberra to predict just how many people are going
01:39 to want to leave the area and fly to Bali on any given day."
01:45 But ease of access is key.
01:47 "It's all about convenience and the quality of service on these airlines."
01:51 Hoping to be in it for the long haul.
01:53 "
01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Comments