Virgin Australia will next week resume flying from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne to Bali. It will be the first time Virgin has flown to Indonesia since March 2020, but the airline is coming back strong with many flights already sold out weeks in advance!

From 15 June 2022, Virgin Australia will resume daily Sydney-Denpasar (Bali) flights. These will be followed on 17 June by daily Brisbane-Denpasar and Melbourne-Denpasar flights. All of these flights will be operated by Virgin Australia’s Boeing 737-800 aircraft, with late afternoon departures from Australia and overnight return services back from Bali.

Until last week, Virgin was also selling seats from Port Hedland to Denpasar from 5 November 2022. But the Port Hedland-Bali flights have now been removed from sale, indicating that Virgin won’t return to this route.

Virgin Australia’s Boeing 737-800 has 168 Economy seats in a 3-3 layout…

…and 8 wide leather reclining Business seats at the front of the plane in a 2-2 configuration.

Bali is the second international destination after Nadi, Fiji that Virgin Australia is resuming flying to since the pandemic.

Virgin Australia’s flights to Bali looking very full

With Indonesia’s border open again and travel-starved Australians looking for a warm place to spend the upcoming school holidays, many of Virgin Australia’s flights to Bali over the coming months are already looking very full.

With still a week left before Virgin’s first flight to Bali since 2020 takes off, there are already 17 Virgin Australia flights between Australia and Denpasar which are completely sold out in both Economy and Business! This includes two Sydney-Bali, four Melbourne-Bali, two Bali-Melbourne and nine Brisbane-Bali flights throughout June and July 2022.

As of yesterday, several more Virgin flights to Bali scheduled over the next month only have one or two seats left for sale on the whole plane. This includes the inaugural Sydney-Denpasar flight next Wednesday.

Virgin Australia had originally planned to operate five weekly flights on the Melbourne-Bali route from mid-June, but recently added extra flights on Tuesdays and Thursdays (making this a daily service) to meet the higher-than-expected demand.

Virgin’s Business Class loadings are even more impressive

Until the end of July, there are currently more Virgin Australia flights to or from Bali where Business Class is already sold out than flights where Business seats are still available for sale.

On the Brisbane-Bali route, Business Class is already sold out on 28 flights between now and the end of July, while 29 flights over the same period are already fully booked in Business over the same period. Meanwhile, 26 Melbourne-Bali and 31 Bali-Melbourne flights are already sold out in Business Class until the end of July 2022.

But the Business Class loads on the Sydney-Bali route are the most impressive of all. Business Class is already sold out on every single Sydney-Bali flight from the launch on 15 June until 4 July. And in the opposite direction from Bali back to Sydney, there are currently only 6 flights with Business seats available between 15 June and 7 August 2022.

If you’re booked on one of Virgin’s flights to Bali over the coming months and hoping to get an upgrade using Velocity points or Virgin Australia’s UpgradeMe Bid system, you’re unfortunately not likely to be successful. With only 8 Business seats available per flight and demand extremely strong at the moment, Virgin is having no trouble selling these seats to full-fare paying customers.

(Clearly, Virgin needs more Business seats on these routes… but reconfiguring a few planes isn’t something that can be easily done.)

Other airlines also returning to Bali

Jetstar was the first airline to resume flights from Australia to Denpasar when Indonesia began reopening to tourists in March this year. Jetstar initially just resumed Melbourne-Bali services, but has now resumed flying on all seven of its pre-COVID routes from Australia to the popular Indonesian holiday destination.

Indonesia AirAsia also resumed flights last month from Perth to Bali, while Malindo Air is planning to resume flights from Melbourne and Brisbane to Denpasar (with onward service to Kuala Lumpur) later this month.

Qantas is also currently flying from Sydney and Melbourne to Bali using Boeing 737s, while Garuda Indonesia is operating a single weekly Sydney-Denpasar flight at the moment.

Indonesian entry requirements relaxed

The surge in bookings to Bali comes as Indonesia removes most of the remaining COVID-19 entry restrictions that had existed during the pandemic.

Tourists arriving in Indonesia are no longer required to quarantine or take a COVID-19 test on arrival. Since a few weeks ago, vaccinated travellers are also no longer required to get a pre-departure PCR test before travelling to Indonesia.

Australians on holiday overseas are no longer required to get a COVID-19 test before returning to Australia either, with the Australian government scrapping this requirement in April. Just three Australian states – NSW, QLD and SA – still require Australians returning home from overseas to take a rapid antigen test within 24 hours of arriving back in Australia.

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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 economics, aviation & 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.