Jetstar Returns 10,000+ Tourists from Bali

17th Jul 2015

More than 10,000 tourists that chose the island of Bali for their summer holidays found themselves under threat from the nearby volcano Mount Raung, as the mountain started to spew ash into the air, stranding them on this Indonesian island. Fortunately, Jetstar managed to return more than 10,000 of them safely back to Australia.

Jetstar Adding 20 Flights to Bali for the Relief Operation

The Australian airline added over 20 flights from the Denpasar airport in Bali to Australia in the past week to complement its regular service to the island all with the aim to get the tourists safely out of reach of Mount Raung and its ash cloud.

Jetstar used Boeing 787s (335 seats), Airbus A330s (305 seats) and Airbus A320s for the relief flights. Assisting Jetstar in the rescue operation was Qantas with two Boeing 737-800 planes, which flew from Bali to Perth for this occasion. This was the first time Qantas flew to Denpasar in seven years.

In addition, Qantas also operated on some of Jetstar's domestic and international flights on its Perth and Honolulu routes.

Speaking about the successful relief operation, Jetstar Group chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka said:

"We'd be the first to admit that we initially got caught out by this, but we have responded strongly and the feedback from customers has been amazing. We have had to crew these additional flights by calling cabin crew and pilots to come in on their days off. We even had employees who were on holidays in Bali come in to help out."

Jetstar and Virgin Australia are the only carriers from Australia to fly directly to and from Bali. Service from this island was initially stopped about two weeks ago when the nearby Mount Raung started erupting and sent a volcanic ash cloud into the air. As a result, the Denpasar airport, located on the island, shut down temporarily and Jetstar and VA suspended their operation to the island on behest of the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre.

As the situation changed, both Jetstar and Virgin Australia resumed and cancelled flights to Bali several times.

In order to get as many people out as soon as possible, Jetstar was flying empty aircraft to Bali and returned with full to Australia.