News
Indonesia AirAsia plans Lombok-Perth route
December 7th 2018
Indonesia AirAsia will add an A320 Lombok-Perth route to its network from February, local Indonesian media has reported, citing West Nusa Tenggara governor, Zulkieflimansyah. Read More »
The governor told kompas.com that his administration and the Tourism Ministry had agreed to subsidize the route by paying for up to 90 seats, or 50%, of AirAsia’s A320 inventory per flight. This arrangement will be re-evaluated after six months. “This is business so it needs to make a profit. [AirAsia] asked for a guarantee,” Zulkieflimansyah said.
Lombok and Sumbawa tourism is recovering from a massive earthquake in August that killed more than 200 islanders and scared off tourists. “We have massively promoted tourism to create awareness that Lombok and Sumbawa are safe to visit,” the governor said.
Zulkieflimansyah said the provincial government also hoped to partner with low-cost carrier, Lion Air, to open Lombok-Guangzhou and Lombok-Jeddah.
“At the moment, there are several chartered flights from China to Lombok. Extra effort is needed to realize Lion Air’s direct China-Lombok route. We are still developing the ideal, yet logical arrangement with Lion Air,” he said.
International flights from Lombok are a daily AirAsia A320 service to Kuala Lumpur and a three times a week SilkAir B737-800 route to Singapore.
