I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport is one of Indonesia’s best-connected travel hubs. In fact, leaders are looking to establish Bali as a leading regional transit centre.
As Bali Airport welcomes more travellers, other nearby international airports are upping their game too.
Bali Airport is the second busiest airport in Indonesia. Welcoming millions of international and domestic travellers every year, Bali Airport is constantly adding new flight services to the schedule.
As tourism leaders in Indonesia look to establish Bali as a transit hub for regional travel, equal focus is also being spent on developing the country’s five super priority destinations. These include Labuan Bajo, which is the gateway to Komodo National Park, and Mandalika in Lombok.
For decades, for tourists planning to travel to Labuan Bajo, it was necessary to first fly to Bali or Jakarta before catching a domestic flight to Labuan Bajo and exploring Komodo National Park and beyond.
Top airlines are now looking to open more direct international flights to both Lombok and Labuan Bajo, which sit within West Nusa Tenggara Province and East Nusa Tenggara Province, respectively.
Airlines are expected to announce new international services to Perth, Jeddah, and Istanbul. This is in addition to new domestic services operating between Lombok-Labuan Bajo, Lombok-Waingapu, and Lombok-Tambolaka.
The Governor of West Nusa Tenggara, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, has been clear about his mission to level up tourism, trade, and logistics across the region, all of which depend on reliable and affordable international flight connectivity.
For Bali tourists, the prospective new international flight services mark the start of a new chapter of travel in Indonesia.
While the two-week sun, sea, and sand vacation to Bali will always be on trend, in the coming few years travel trends are expected to see increased demand for multi-destination vacations and travel experiences across Indonesia.
This could be as simple as a two-stop, two-week vacation split between Lombok and Bali, or a multi-stop adventure starting in Bali, ticking off the Nusa Islands, Gili Islands, Lombok, and Labuan Bajo by air and sea.
There is increasing demand for multi-stop Indonesian vacations traveling westward from Bali to East Java and Central Java.
The difference in the new international flight routes in and out of Lombok and Labuan Bajo for Bali tourists is that multi-stop holidaymakers will no longer need to return to Bali in order to fly home. Until now, this kind of multi-stop adventure would have ended with a journey back to Bail.
Moving forward, tourists will be able to maximise their vacation time, reducing their travel time, and even cutting out whole days of island-hopping logistics.
Once in effect, these new flight services would allow tourists from Perth, for example, to fly directly into Bali, after enjoying a few days in Bali, travel via fast boat to the Gili Islands or Lombok, then onwards to Labuan Bajo via a domestic flight, before a final international flight back to Perth.
The Indonesian Tourism Board, Wonderful Indonesia, has even launched a new itinerary highlighting for tourists the wonders of Bali and Labuan Bajo. The ‘Bajo, Bali, Beyond Beautiful’ itinerary features seven key stops that can be organised independently by travelers or through travel agents.
Five of the stops are in East Nusa Tenggara Province, all close to Labuan Bajo, and two iconic stops in central Bali.
The itinerary is just for inspiration, and tourists can add on any number of exceptional stops along the way, including island hopping through Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan before sailing onwards to Gili Trawangan, Gili Air, and Gili Meno, exploring Lombok, and then onwards to Labuan Bajo.
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