Jakarta (Indonesia Window) – After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jetstar Australia returned to Bali on Monday (March 14) with 300 passengers, including 26 high-profile Australian media crews and travel agents.

The flight was covered in the Familiarization Trip (Fam Trip) program with a promotional title Un-Bali-Vable with the hashtag 'To Bali with Love' initiated by Jetstar Australia.

Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno said Jetstar Australia's inaugural flight to Bali was a momentum for economic revival and opening up jobs in the tourism and creative economy sectors in Bali.

"This program collaborates with 15 local MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) players who were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic," he said in a statement received here on Wednesday (March 16).

Sandiaga expected the program could enhance information about the ease of visiting Indonesia with a quarantine-free scheme and increase Australian market awareness about the rise of tourism and the creative economy in the archipelagic country, especially in Bali.

Meanwhile, Jetstar Group CEO Gareth Evans said that the company would start opening flights by operating the Melbourne-Denpasar route three times a week, until finally it would be enlarged by Easter Day on April 17, 2022.

The Sydney - Denpasar route is scheduled to resume operations in early April 2022, while from Brisbane, Adelaide, Cairns and Gold Coast in May 2022.

"We are very happy to be back to Bali after two years, and we believe that with the ease of access to Bali, Bali will soon be back in the position of the most popular destination on Jetstar," Gareth said.

Reporting by Indonesia Window