Virgin Australia awarded last seats to Bali with plans for double daily flights from Melbourne

A contest between Qantas and Virgin Australia for the last remaining airline seats on Bali routes has been decided.

Virgin Australia has clinched the last remaining seat capacity on Bali routes, after Qantas pulled out of the race.

In a stark illustration of the popularity of the Bali route, Virgin applied for the additional capacity in order to schedule an extra weekly flight between Melbourne and Denpasar.

Qantas then made its own application for the seats, promising to upgauge an existing service from a single aisle Boeing 737 to a double aisle A330 during periods of high demand.

In support of its application, Qantas claimed it was more likely to fill the seats, citing pre-Covid-19 load factors of 88.6 per cent on flights to Bali.

Virgin pointed out that Qantas and partner Jetstar already had the lion’s share of seats to Bali with 20,076 a week, compared to their 4752.

The International Air Services Commission sought further submissions in order to rule on who should be awarded the airline seats.

The IASC has responsibility for deciding what international flight capacity is awarded to different airlines, under bilateral agreements struck between Australia and other countries.

With seats to Bali selling from $649 to $1605 in economy one way, the extra capacity could be worth around $14.5m a year to an airline.

Late last week, Qantas withdrew its application due to “a change in circumstances” following the axing of the airline’s Perth-Jakarta flights.

The move meant Qantas would have more capacity to play with on Indonesian routes, including Bali, without the extra 172 seats a week up for grabs.

With Qantas no longer in the contest, the IASC declared Virgin the winner on the condition the capacity was fully utilised by December 31, and no other carrier code shared on the route.

A Virgin spokeswoman said the allocation would mean the airline could schedule double daily flights from Melbourne to Bali from mid-December.

“Travel to Bali remains extremely popular for Australians as we continue to see strong forecasted demand for our services above 2019 levels,” she said.

In addition to the extra Melbourne flight, Virgin was also preparing to start services from Adelaide in December, and the Gold Coast in March 2023.

“We’re thrilled to be able to offer more people the Virgin experience while travelling to destinations they love,” the spokeswoman said.

Qantas and Virgin last went to battle in the IASC over flight routes and capacity in 2019, when Tokyo’s Haneda Airport made two extra slots available.

Qantas wanted both spaces at the slot restrained airport, but was ultimately forced to share them with Virgin.

However, the onset of the Covid pandemic and Virgin’s financial collapse meant the airline never got to operate its planned Brisbane-Tokyo flights.

There was still hope Virgin would one day fly to Japan, the spokeswoman said.

“Virgin Australia has retained its capacity allocation in Tokyo Haneda with the intention of commencing Australia-Japan services in the future.”