The second international carrier to put Canberra on its radar will begin flights to the capital in June. It's got the ACT government hoping more airlines will follow the lead of Malaysia-based Batik Air with a focus - for now - on small carriers with smaller aircraft.
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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 "
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