KONTAN.CO.ID - JAKARTA. AirAsia Indonesia inaugurated its new flight route from Bali to Kolkata in India on Oct. 4.

The service offers four flights a day departing from I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali and arrives at Kolkata's Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

Upon landing, the maiden flight, which used an Airbus A320-200 airplane, was greeted with a water canon at the airport in Bali.

According to AirAsia Group CEO for Indonesia Dendy Kurniawan, the ticket sales for this route was first made available on Aug. 17 in accordance to the 72nd anniversary celebration of Indonesia’s Independence Day.

“We want to emphasize that this expansion is only possible due to the hard work of the Transportation Ministry. We are currently in the first category of the FAA safety rank and we really appreciate it,” said Dendy.

Following the launch of the new service, AirAsia now offers two routes to India as it previously launched Bali - Mumbai flight in May.

This also marks the fourth international route from AirAsia Indonesia after Bali – Narita, Bali - Mumbai and Jakarta – Macau.

The travel time between Bali from Kolkata is 7.5 hours including a short transit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

India has the second highest growth percentage for the number of tourists to Indonesia with 27 percent per year, right behind China with 45 percent per year.

Editor: Barratut Taqiyyah Rafie