Indonesian National carrier Garuda Indonesia will launch non-stop services between Mumbai and Denpasar (Bali) starting today. The twice a week flight will be operated by Airbus A330-200 and a third frequency will be added from 2nd June 2018. The service would operate on Mondays and Thursdays and Saturday operations would be added later. The flight would operate at below timings.
GA814 DPS1540 – 2025BOM
GA815 BOM2150 – 0755+1DPS
The airline started thrice a week services to Mumbai from Jakarta via Bangkok in December 2016, operating B737-800 aircraft. The airline had last operated to Mumbai in 1986. This service ended in March 2018.
The new flight comes on the backdrop of Indonesia AirAsiaX withdrawing its Bali – Kuala Lumpur – Mumbai service from 29th April 2018. This service helped connect Bali to Mumbai as well as connect Mumbai to the vast AirAsia network via Kuala Lumpur. Indonesia AirAsiaX marked the return of the group to Mumbai in May 2017, after a hiatus of five years, operating the 377 seater A330-300 on a daily basis.
Garuda Indonesia has configured its A330-200 aircraft in dual class with a seating of 222 passengers with 186 economy seats and 36 Business class seats (flat bed with 165 degree recline). As an inaugural offer the airline is offering Double miles for travel in certain ticket classes for travel till 23rd July and 50% discount for redemption till the same date.
Garuda Indonesia is a SKYTEAM member and is rated 5-star by Skytrax. Last year I flew the airline between Singapore and Jakarta and was impressed with the service and food offerings in Economy class.
NetworkThoughts 