22 June 2017 © David Eyre

Batik Air Indonesia commenced twice daily Bali-Perth services today, with the arrival of the first Airbus A320 service from Denpasar into Perth in the early hours of 22 June 2017.

First service

The first service was operated by PK-LAQ, an Airbus A320-214 (sharklets) (MSN 6722), which was originally delivered to the airline in September 2015, and is configured with 12 Business and 144 Economy seats.

The first flight was ID6007, which departed Denpasar at 9:13pm (33 minutes late) on 21 June 2017, arriving on runway 03 at Perth at 12:29am (42 minutes late) on 22 June 2017, with a total flight time of 3 hours 16 minutes.

First departure from Perth was ID6008. It pushed back from Bay 155 at 8:53am, taxied out at 8:59am, and took off from runway 03 at 9:09am. It arrived at Denpasar at 12:44pm, a total flight time of 3 hours 33 minutes.

PK-LAQ returned as flight ID6005, departed Denpasar 2:22pm and arrived Perth 5:27pm. The afternoon service was supposed to receive a water cannon salute upon arrival – a tradition for first services, but the salute was cancelled, reportedly due to an Emirates A380 being too close.

The aircraft departed Perth as ID6006 at 6:46pm, arriving at Denpasar at 10:21pm.

The next day, PK-LAJ operated the two services, establishing a sequence of PK-LAQ and PK-LAJ operating services each alternate day.

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Background

Batik is a full-service subsidiary of Lion Air Group, which also operates Malaysia joint venture Malindo Air (being rebranded as Batik Air Malaysia), which commenced services on the Kuala Lumpur – Perth route during 2015, using its Boeing 737-800 and -900ER.

Batik Air Indonesia had first announced in December 2016 that it intended to start Perth services in December 2016 or January 2017, following receipt of a CASA Air Operators Certificate on 25 November 2016. In November 2016, Batik Air also passed the IATA Operational Safety Audit, or IOSA, and is no longer on the European Union air safety blacklist.

However, the services did not commence when originally planned and on 17 March 2017, the airline’s CEO said that this was due to a lack of suitable air traffic slots at Denpasar.

The airline finally announced the start of services in May 2017, with the following schedule:

Flight	Depart Denpasar	Arrive Perth	Flight	Depart Perth	Arrive Denpasar	Frequency	Aircraft
ID6005	1255	1635	ID6006	1820	2200	DAILY	Airbus A320
ID6007	2040	0020(+1)	ID6008	0830	1210	DAILY	Airbus A320

Batik Air Indonesia has 47 aircraft, including 33 Airbus A320-200, 8 Boeing 737-800s and 6 Boeing 737-900ER, operating 25 domestic routes and one international route to Singapore.

Batik plans to add Denpasar-Melbourne and Denpasar-Sydney services later, and intends to eventually establish a new airline based in Australia.

More Australian tourists visit Bali than any other nationality – in September 2016, 850,326 Aussies visited, an increase of 6.6 percent on the same period last year.

Other airlines on the highly competitive Bali – Perth route include: Garuda Indonesia (Airbus A330-200 and -300); AirAsia Indonesia (Airbus A320); Virgin Australia (Boeing 737-800) and Jetstar (Airbus A320).

For further information, please contact Batik Air directly at http://www.batikair.com/