Garuda Indonesia will begin direct flights from London to Bali from 22 January.
Indonesia’s national carrier is switching its existing London Heathrow to Jakarta service to run a direct one-way flight from London to Denpasar in Bali.
The new route brings the popular holiday island, known for its black sand beaches, swaggering sunsets and Hindu temples, within a direct flight from the UK.
However, the route is only directly on the outbound leg. On the return leg, London-bound travellers will have to travel via Jakarta. This also means that passengers from London whose final destination is Jakarta will have to connect in Bali instead.
The 7,760-mile flight, which will take 15 hours and 35 minutes, will operate three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The flight, flown on a Boeing 777-300 aircraft, will leave London at 9.55pm and arrive in Bali at 9.15pm local time.
Prices for a single journey on the inaugural direct flight start from £548 including all taxes and fees.
Garuda resumed flying from Heathrow to Jakarta in November, following what it called a restructure of its long-haul routes.
Tourism to Bali has faltered over the past year thanks to the continued eruption of the active volcano Mount Agung, as well as two earthquakes in eastern Indonesia.
According to Tourism Indonesia, the number of foreigners arriving in Bali fell 2.77 per cent in the first three months of the 2018 year on year. The tourism body blamed the 2017 eruption of the volcano, which prompted a 2.5-day closure of the international airport.
In 2017, there were 361,197 British tourists visiting Indonesia or increased around 9.8 percent compared to that of 2016, which was recorded at 328,882. As of August 2018, there have been 264,023 British people enjoying their holidays in the archipelago.
The tourists coming from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Russia have become the top five contributors to foreign tourist arrivals to Indonesia over the past few years.
The market value of the five European countries is recorded at more than US$1 million with the average length of stay of almost two weeks or 13.7 days.
What are the details of London to Bali?
Starting from January 22nd, 2019 (yes that soon), Garuda Indonesia will be operating a non-stop direct one-way route from London Heathrow to Bali. The route will operate three times a week (Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturdays).
The route will be flown from 10 PM to 9 AM London to Bali (Overnight) and will take around 15 hours and 20 minutes.
You might be wondering how Garuda managed to get Heathrow slots so quickly. Well, this new route comes at a cost of the London Heathrow to Jakarta route.
It’s a little strange that they are cancelling the route to the Indonesian capital and replacing it with a link to a popular tourist destination, but perhaps this gamble will really pay off in a big way.