DENPASAR, 9 August 2018: Turkish Airlines has confirmed it will launch a new service from Istanbul to Denpasar on the island of Bali by mid-2019.
The news comes just days after a massive earthquake hit Lombok Island killing more than 100 people.
It was the second quake in a week and has prompted a mass exodus of holidaymakers from Lombok, the Gili Island and to a lesser extent Bali.
Bali and Lombok are separated by the Lombok straits a stretch of sea 40 to 60 km wide.
Thousands of tourists are being evacuated from Lombok and officials say it could take at least three months for tourism to recover.
But Turkish Airlines, one of European’s biggest airlines with a global network, says it will introduce a new three-weekly service to Bali next July.
The airline has served Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, since 2009 offering daily flights and making it the only European airline with a direct service to the Indonesian capital.
Other airlines serve the route with a stop in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.
According to the airline’s provisional schedule it will offer three weekly flights from Istanbul to Denpasar using an Airbus A330-300 aircraft.
Flights will operate from 17 July 2019 on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday but according to a report in Airlineroute, the airline will increase frequencies to daily effective 8 August 2019.
