In Reply to: There are two sides to Kadek. posted by Bob Bali on Friday, 13. January 2006 at 09:10 Bali Time:
Air Paradise created a price war and yes it did help get people back to Bali after Oct 02 but this price war dragged prices down to a level of such low profit for the airlines that they relied on having full aicraft and had insufficient funds on hand to survive when things got bad. Now Air Paradise is gone. It's in no ones interest to repeat this and place other airlines at the same financial risk. If the airlines going to Bali go broke how will we get there and how will this benefit the Balinese? From a business perspective why will an airline move into a market and drag prices down to a level where they are losing money unless planes are nearly 100% full. I think travellers have had a good couple of years with prices but will have to accept that such prices cannot be sustained, the fares must return to a level where its profitable and every one benefits long term. This won't happen short term due to the second bombing but long term I can see prices returning to a level of around $899.00 for a package fare from east coast Australia plus tax. These are prices similar to pricing before Oct 02 and Air Paradise. As Les tried to point out, at $899.00 plus tax (so around $1000.00) for a week in Bali with accommodation you are still laughing campared to the prices of a similar trip to holiday destinations in Australia eg Gold Coast or Sunshine Coast of Queensland with a similar level of accommodation + food costs.
Not being critical but it just surprises me that after Air Paradise went under due to not being profitable I am still reading posts critical of Garuda's "high" prices and calling for a price war on one hand and concerned about their financial status on the other