LOMBOK, 7 May 2019: AirAsia intends to make it easier to fly to Lombok by turning the island’s airport into a mini-hub with time-saving direct flights from around the region.
AirAsia’s decision to create a Lombok hub, the airline fifth in Indonesia, follows in the footsteps of the country’s Ministry of Tourism’s strategy that aims to establish Lombok island as one of “10 New Balis”.
Lombok stands in the shadow of popular neighbour Bali that commands the major share of the country’s tourist arrivals. But the government hopes to spread tourism’s benefits to emerging destinations and encourage them to emulate the Bali business model. It’s a tall order as Bali enjoys a long head start stretching two decades or more on its closest rival Lombok.
According to data from Trading Economic for March this year, Indonesia welcomed 1.34 million visitors to the country a decline of 1.82%. Bali accounts for around 441,800 of the visits, but the trend was negative with a loss of 8.88% during March. Singapore, Malaysia and China were the top source markets.
Lombok’s tourism is still battling to recover from the impact of two earthquakes in July and August 2018 that killed more than 100 people and stranded thousands of visitors who were trekking on the slopes of Mount Rinjani. It took almost two weeks to evacuate the trekkers following landslides.
But after a strong showing of bookings over Chinese New Year and the Easter holidays, Lombok’s hotels are now talking about a recovery that will raise occupancy levels to around 80% a level enjoyed before the earthquakes struck.
Add to that AirAsia’s announcement last week that it will start direct flights to the island 9 June with a four weekly service to Perth in Western Australia and the local industry believes the island is once more heading for a bright future in tourism.
In addition to the direct flights to Perth, the low-cost airline will add flights from Bali a 40-minute hop between the two islands costing around USD45 and direct domestic flights from the royal city of Yogyakarta a centre of Javanese art and culture.
Two A320 aircraft will be stationed at Lombok’s airport sporting a brand new livery that illustrates the island’s icons; the majestic Mount Rinjani and the underwater charm of the Gili islands, located to the northwest of Lombok.
Compared with Bali that has around 14 direct routes from cities in the Asia-Pacific region, Lombok has just two from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia courtesy of AirAsia and from Singapore on Silk Air. Perth will become the island’s third international destination with direct flights when it launches 9 June.
Most tourists heading for Lombok will fly to Jakarta and change planes for a service to Lombok but the domestic flight sector adds round USD149 to the cost of travel in contrast with Bali that has direct flight links to numerous aviation gateway cities in Asia such as Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Manila and Tokyo.
Travelling through those gateways to Bali keeps costs lower with shorter travel times than flying to Jakarta and transferring to a domestic flight.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism’s data shows that AirAsia continues to be the largest contributor of international passengers to the country, accounting for around 3.2 million foreign arrivals or 25% of all international visitors to Indonesia last year.
Since commencing flights from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Lombok in 2012, AirAsia has carried more than 1 million international visitors to the island.
With two aircraft being based in Lombok, the Lombok hub announcement affirms AirAsia’s commitment to supporting tourism.
Other hubs in the AirAsia network in Indonesia are Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan and Bali.
AirAsia flies twice daily to Lombok from its home base Kuala Lumpur but the Lombok-Perth service is the airline’s first direct international flight to the island from a country other than Malaysia.
Hotel groups hope to cash in on the move and one of them, Wyndham Sundancer, calmly announcing it is offering AUD1 room rates for travellers from Perth who fly the new direct service.
It’s an offer that should carry a mega asterisk the kind that warns you what is offered is not exactly what it offered.
Wyndham Sundancer offers the single dollar deal on the first night of a minimum three-night booking that carries a rate of AUD134 for the remaining two nights. The minimum three-night stay will cost AUD269
But there is no shortage of deals to be found on accommodation at Lombok resorts across all star-ratings.
The cheapest offer quoted by Agoda.com gives you a room and breakfast in the cottage style low-rise Jali Resort on Gili Trawangan at USD55 a night.
At Mataram, Lombok, the contrasting high-rise Golden Palace delivers the same bed and breakfast deal for USD27.
Under its home category, Agoda’s offers a villa on Gili Trawangan at the Motu resort for USD107 including breakfast.
