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Tigerair Australia may have pulled out of Bali, but many airlines have since upped their game to fill the gap.

Jetstar Group recently signed a wide-ranging Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism, which aims to “deepen cooperation on tourism and promote growth in international tourism to Indonesia”.

“Our MOU with Jetstar will help us reach a target of 1.8 million tourists from Australia to Indonesia,” Vinsensius Jemadu, director for Asia Pacific Tourism Promotion, Ministry of Tourism Republic of Indonesia said.

Indonesian airlines also have the market firmly in their sights, with several carriers bulking up frequency and eyeing off new routes.

Full-service airline Batik Air’s first Australian route — double daily services between Perth and Denpasar — took to the skies last month, targeting both inbound and outbound traffic.

“Perth is the most favourite destination in Australia for Indonesians, and we are very happy that we can fly directly to Perth from Denpasar,” said Batik Air CEO Captain Achmad Luthfie.

“We are planning to fly to more destinations in Australia,” he said.

Meanwhile, Malindo Air has revealed it will add Melbourne-Denpasar-Kuala Lumpur services by the end of the year, on the back of strong performance of its new Brisbane-Denpasar-Kuala Lumpur route.

Malindo Air CEO Chandran Rama Muthy said Australia was a key part of the airline’s network plan, noting Sydney was on the radar.

Garuda Indonesia has also bulked up its capacity to Australia, targeting passenger growth in the aviation sector to reach 650,000 passengers this year. During the May – October 2017 holiday season the carrier is offering extra departures on its services from Jakarta to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth and bumped up flights from Bali to Sydney, Melbourne and Perth as well.

The national airline said the new frequencies were in line with the high market demand to Australia and would accommodate increased traffic between Indonesia and Australia, along with providing more options and convenience for service users.

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