Denpasar (Antaranews Bali) - The national airline of Garuda Indonesia plans to increase the frequency of flights from twice to three times a week to accommodate the high demand of passengers on Denpasar, Bali route to Mumbai, India and vice versa.
"Inaugural flight of Denpasar-Mumbai will be conducted on April 23, 2018," General Manager of Garuda Indonesia of Bali Joseph Adrian Saul said here on Thursday.
Saul explained that in the early stages of the Bali-Mumbai flight will be served twice a week on Monday and Thursday at 03:40 p.m. local time of about seven hours travel time.
After that, Garuda will increase the frequency of flights which will be begun in May 2018.
The flight will be served with a large aircraft fleet type pof Airbus 330 series 200 with a capacity of 223 seats.
He expected the direct flights from Mumbai to Bali will open the greater arrival of Indian tourists.
Moreover, he hopes the visit of foreign tourists to Indonesia which the target of 17 million people this year, and it will increase to 20 million people in 2019.
Indian Consul General Sunil Babu welcomed the first route connecting India and Bali.
He stated that the average tourist from India to Bali reached about 800 people everyday.
The growth of Indian tourists over the last few years to Bali is quite positive.
In fact, when Bali tourism had decreased due to increased activity of Mount Agung, Indian tourists remained the most visitors arriving in Bali.
Bali Central Bureau of Statistics noted that Indian tourists visiting Bali recorded of 272,761 people in 2017 which was an increase of 45.59 percent compared to the previous year.
Indian tourists is on the third place after China and Australia which contributed 4.79 percent of total foreign tourists to Bali, with the total of 5.69 million people during 2017. (WDY)
