In Reply to: Les might be able to shed some light.... posted by bunbury gal on Sunday, 18. December 2011 at 15:02 Bali Time:
Having lived in Indonesia since 2006, I am unfamiliar with flight schedules out of Australian ports so my comments here are based on my personal thoughts and knowledge of how Air Asia operates.
Air Asia will not introduce any new route on anything less than three services each week as this to them is simply not viable to cover the infrastructure and staffing costs involved. They also have a clear policy that unless flights operate to a specific target (think minimum 70% loadings) then they will be dropped. I was Chairman of North Sulawesi Tourism Organisation when Air Asia introduced Kuala Lumpur/Manado Services three times weekly. Whilst inbound to Darwin was producing well, the airline did not receive the support it needed from the local community to boost outbound loadings to KUL to expected levels, so Mandao was abandoned. Air Asia management had made their expectations 100% clear from the outset.
Air Asia Indonesia introduced another two domestic routes in the past couple of weeks for which they obviously need operational aircraft. I can only assume that loadings between Darwin and Bali were insufficient to warrant daily services to be continued. The schedule changes would have been a part of the minimisation process and dependent on aircraft allocations to optimise revenue. It would have been a purely commercial decision.
Garuda Indonesia operating as a stand-alone carrier on the DRW/DPS route had carried losses over a number of years until Darwin was dropped as part if Garuda's restructuring programme which did not cover loss-producing routes.
When I heard Air Asia and Jet* would both be operating the DRW/DPS route, I really wondered how both could make the route pay. For Jet* it is probably easier as DPS can be handled as an extension of an Australian domestic service and I expect Jet* has crews based in both Darwin and Denpasar. As I mentioned in another post, this is how Virgin Australia can cover ADL/DPS while for a stand-alone carrier this route is not viable.
I am disappointed to hear that passengers were not promptly informed by Air Asia of the changes, particularly where it involved change of actual departure dates. There is a Live Chat feature on the Air Asia Website which can be used to minimise call centre wait times, so perhaps that's an option which could be used in making enquiries.
I hope that my thoughts may help paint a clearer picture as to why these changes have been made by Air Asia's management. I fly Air Asia regularly and have nothing but highest praise for its management, flight and ground crews.