LONDON – On November 11, as their second announcement within a week and their fifth announcement in the space of just one month, the Indonesian carrier Batik Air announced that it will be resuming its services to Sydney, Australia.
Returning to Sydney
Commencing from December 12, Batik Air will resume scheduled services from its base in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to the east coast capital city of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. These services will be operated via Denpasar in Bali, Indonesia and will fly on a daily basis.
Sydney becomes Batik Air’s third Australian destination that they have restarted in recent months, with Perth already underway and Melbourne restarting in December alongside Sydney. The Australian market for Batik Air is certainly picking up its pace and we may see them venture to more Australian destinations in the future.
The route will be operated by Batik Air Malaysia’s Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, of which the subsidiary of Batik Air has 16 of in its fleet at present, where some are configured with 12 business class seats and 150 economy class seats, however, the vast majority of their Boeing 737 MAX 8’s have an all-economy class configuration with 180 seats.
The few aircraft with the business class seats mimic the same configuration that the carriers older Boeing 737-800 Next Generation’s have.
The outbound flight, OD171 will depart Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) at 17:00 pm and arrive into Denpasar Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS) at 20:10 pm.
The aircraft will then remain in Denpasar for one hour before departing to Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD) at 21:10 pm for an overnight flight where it will land into Sydney at 06:15 am. All times are local.
The return flight, OD172 will depart Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD) after a one-hour turnaround at 07:15 am and head back to Denpasar Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS) at 10:35 am.
Following a one-hour stopover, the flight will then leave Denpasar at 11:35 am before arriving finally back into Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) at 14:45 pm. All times are local.
Batik Air senior comments
Batik Air’s Chief Executive Officer, Captain Mushafiz Bin Mustafa Bakri has commented on the carriers latest announcement, saying, “We are excited to relaunch services to Sydney – a city that is a leading financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region as well as serves as the regional headquarters for numerous multinational corporations.”
“This also represents Batik Air’s commitment to constantly expand our network reach and provide our customers with a more seamless travel experience. Before COVID-19, many Malaysians travelled to Australia for business, holidays and to pursue their education, and vice versa.”
“The resumption of these people-to-people flows will enhance our close and excellent bilateral relationship. The closure of Australia’s borders has been especially challenging for thousands of Malaysian students in Australia. Some of these students who returned to Malaysia couldn’t return to Australia to resume their studies.”
Overall
With five announcements in the past month alone, Batik Air is certainly well underway on its path to full recovery from the two difficult years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It will be interesting to see what other announcements from Batik Air are on the way, as well as whether their fleet will begin to slowly grow, especially as the vast majority of Asian aviation sectors gather pace in their recovery, with Japan being the latest to relax its Covid restrictions.
