Flagship airline Garuda Indonesia and Lion Mentari Airlines are adding direct flights to more Chinese cities from Bali next year in a move that would boost tourism for both countries.
Garuda will launch the Guangzou-Denpasar and Shanghai-Denpasar routes in January, the company’s president director Arief Wibowo said in recent interview.
“We will deploy our wide-body Airbus A330-300, which previously served hajj pilgrims,” Arief said, adding that the aforementioned flights will be available three times a week.
Garuda now serves passengers traveling from Jakarta to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzou.
Lion is currently applying for a license from China authorities to fly into eight of its cities, including Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Nanning.
“We are optimistic because the number of tourists coming from China is growing and the demand [for flights to Bali] is quite big,” said Lion Air director Edward Sirait.
The number of Chinese tourists visiting the archipelago almost tripled to 926,000 last year, from 337,000 in 2008.
