Qantas passengers flying from Sydney to Bali can look forward to a much better travel experience from late October.

Qantas will soon fly Airbus A330-200s on its daily flights QF43 and QF44 between Sydney and Denpasar. This is a welcome upgrade over the Boeing 737-800s currently being used for these flights.

The A330 will take over the Sydney-Bali run from Sunday, 29 October 2023. The change will be reflected in the Qantas booking engine from tomorrow.

Qantas had been using Airbus A330-200s on its Sydney-Bali route before the pandemic. It also used the wide-body aircraft for two months over last summer, from 5 December 2022 until 29 January 2023.

But the route was downgraded to smaller Boeing 737 aircraft again after the peak summer period. This was likely done because Qantas needed A330s for other routes including Brisbane-Los Angeles and Melbourne-Delhi.

There is also a limit to the number of seats that Australian carriers can operate to Indonesia, due to the reciprocal air services agreement between the two countries. The available capacity is allocated by the International Air Services Commission.

Flights from Australia to Bali have been very full over the past year or so. Given the high demand and limited competition from other full-service carriers, Qantas has now decided to allocate a larger Airbus A330 to the route.

An improved travel experience

The aircraft swap is great news for both Economy and Business Class passengers. The Airbus A330 is more spacious in both classes of travel, but the biggest difference is that the A330 has 28 lie-flat Business Class suites. By comparison, the Boeing 737-800 has just 12 reclining Business Class seats.

With an Airbus A330 operating the flight, there are now more than double the number of Business Class seats to go around. This means upgrade requests are more likely to clear. It could also mean more Classic Flight Reward seats available to book using Qantas Frequent Flyer points.

Business passengers will also find it much easier to sleep in the A330’s lie-flat bed on the overnight flight from Denpasar back to Sydney.

In Economy Class, passengers on the Airbus A330 can look forward to a comfortable 2-4-2 seating configuration. In-flight Wi-Fi may also be available while the aircraft is flying over Australia, depending on the A330 configuration used.

Less risk of diversion

As an added bonus, the aircraft change reduces the risk of flights needing to divert to Darwin or Broome for refuelling because the A330 can carry more fuel.

Qantas’ Melbourne-Denpasar flights (QF45/46) will continue to be operated by Boeing 737-800s.

Of the eight airlines currently operating flights between Australia and Bali, Garuda Indonesia is the only airline offering lie-flat Business Class (and its Sydney-Bali flight is currently only running once per week). Qantas will become the second airline.

Virgin Australia, Jetstar and Batik Air also offer Business Class between Australia and Bali, but their seats are not lie-flat. Jetstar is currently reducing the number of Business Class seats it operates to Bali.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.