A stir in the Indonesia to Australia market has been caused by recent job adverts which seem to suggest that Indonesian carrier Citilink (QG, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta) is considering launching flights to Melbourne Avalon. With Open Skies between the two nations, there are no regulatory issues for the low-cost carrier to overcome before it is able to commence services.
The adverts to hire a part-time Citilink Services Administrator, among other roles, which was posted by Australian General Sales Agency (GSA) Aviation Online, and clearly states "there is a unique opportunity to become part of the Melbourne (Avalon Airport) team for our client Citilink Indonesia."
While the new destination for the carrier is seemingly beyond doubt, the origin of the new route - most likely to be Denpasar or Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta - the weekly frequency, the start date, and the aircraft type to be used is not clear at this time.
Meanwhile, the Garuda Indonesia Group LCC's first A330-900, originally destined for but ultimately never delivered to WOW air (Reykjavik Keflavik), has now been reregistered as PK-GYC (msn 1887), and is completing its induction into the Citilink fleet and could be used on the new route to Avalon. According to Flightradar24 ADS-B data, the aircraft arrived in Jakarta from Toulouse Blagnac on December 4. A few days later it visited Medan Kuala Namu and Denpasar, presumably for crew training and familiarisation.
According to the ch-aviation schedules module, the Indonesia carrier's only existing Australian service is a daily flight from Denpasar to Perth International. This 1,387 nautical-mile (2,569-kilometre) sector is operated by Citilink's fleet of nine A320-200neos. Whether the more stretching 2,363 nautical-mile (4,377-kilometre) city pair from Denpasar (if that is to be the origin) to Avalon will warrant the use of its sole wide-body is not known at this stage. The airline is expecting another A330-900 (msn 1870) shortly.
While Jetstar Airways (JQ, Melbourne Tullamarine) offers domestic flights to Adelaide International, Gold Coast Coolangatta, and Sydney Kingsford Smith from Avalon, perhaps the most comparable service to the proposed Citilink route is the 2x daily A330-300-operated service from Kuala Lumpur International by AirAsia X (D7, Kuala Lumpur International).
