In great news for West Australian travellers there will soon once again be opportunities to travel directly between Perth and Indonesia’s largest city Jakarta with Air Asia today announcing a new 4 weekly service on the route. The new flights which will be operated by Air Asia’s stalwart Airbus A320 aircraft will take off from 2nd June 2023 and will become the 13th international route to operate out of Perth since the reopening of the state’s borders to international travellers in March last year.
The new flights are expected to boost capacity on the currently vacant served route by over 1400 seats a week. Flights between Perth and Jakarta had previously been operated by Garuda Indonesia prior to the pandemic whilst Air Asia and Jetstar at various times had also operated direct flights between Perth and Lombok offering other alternatives for West Australians heading to Indonesia over the usually busy Bali route. Qantas had recently also try to service the Jakarta route but such plans fell through after negotiations with Perth Airport to facilitate the flights from its own terminal broke down.
CEO of Indonesia AirAsia, Veranita Yosephine, expressed her excitement and optimism of the new route, “This is the first time Indonesia AirAsia has ever flown on this route – thanks to our tourism and airport partners for helping to make these new services a reality. We foresee this new Jakarta – Perth route will be very popular for leisure travelers wanting to see more of Indonesia and for the more than 270 million Indonesians (more than ten million residents in Jakarta alone) wanting to visit Perth and West Australia for business, leisure, studying and visiting friends and family.
“With the great support of Tourism West Australia and Perth Airport we are confident these new services connecting the Indonesian capital with West Australia’s, will be in strong demand, especially because from Jakarta Australians can also fly on to many incredibly popular and other relatively unknown gems throughout Indonesia like Lake Toba, Labuan Bajo, and the newest destination Lampung province in Sumatera.”
The WA Government in announcing the new route with Air Asia saw Tourism Minister Roger Cook saying “We have been very aggressive in pursuing direct international flights for Perth. We want to make it as easy as possible to get to WA for international tourists, business people and students.
“We also want to make it easier for Western Australians to travel and do business.”It is all aimed at reaffirming Perth’s reputation as the Western Gateway to Australia.
Acting CEO of Perth Airport, Kate Holsgrove, said,“This new service to and from Jakarta will deliver a significant boost for the business and tourism sectors and the broader economy. More than 60 percent of the world’s population lives on our doorstep in Asia. Perth is closer than Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney to 17 of Asia’s top 20 most populated cities – including Jakarta. Indonesia AirAsia is currently the only airline flying this route, and we look forward to working with the airline to grow the market so that it can become a daily connection for Perth.”
The new announcement comes only days after Philippine Airlines finally took to the skies from Perth Airport with their new direct A321 services starting to Manilla.
