QANTAS: starts direct flights Melbourne to Jakarta, Indonesia this week

The first direct flight of about 7 hours headed from Melbourne to Indonesia on Sunday 16 April and then running three days a week, year-round.

Qantas and Jetstar operate around 106 return flights per week from Australia to Indonesia, mainly to the island of Bali. Direct flights to Jakarta only fly out of Sydney and Melbourne.

Melbourne – Jakarta flight timetable

You’ll be travelling on one of the Qantas A330s in a two-class configuration, with fully-flat beds in the Business Suites. Qantas has three different configurations for its A330-200 jets. They have seats configured with 28/27/26 Business Class seats over two cabins and 243/224/208 Economy seats depending on the plane. Some seats are not bookable on international routes as they are used as a crew rest area.

• QF39 – 13:45 from Sydney (SYD), arriving at 18:45 in Jakarta (CGK) – daily
• QF40 – 20:15 from Jakarta (CGK), arriving the next day at 06:25 in Sydney (SYD) – daily

You can expect to pay ~AU$4,800 for a Business Class airfare in May, and around AU$1,150 for Economy return airfares.

Sydney – Jakarta flight timetable

Qantas runs daily flights Sydney to Jakarta using an A330 (28 Business seats in one cabin and 269 Economy seats):

• QF41 – 15:10 from Melbourne (MEL), arriving at 19:15 in Jakarta (CGK) – Wednesday, Friday and Sunday
• QF42 – 21:00 from Jakarta (CGK), arriving the next day at 06:40 in Melbourne (MEL) – Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

This makes for a total of 10 flights per week direct to Jakarta on Qantas. Garuda Airlines of Indonesia offers a three-day-a-week service out of Sydney – GA713/GA712 (Wednesday, Friday and Saturday ). This is on a two-class A330 with angled lie-flat seats in Business class.

2PAXfly Takeout

Unless you are heading there for business purposes, then Jakarta is not that popular a destination. Jakarta is the perfect start for exploring the rest of Indonesia transiting onwards to its many islands.

Other than Bali, I have tended to ignore the rest of Indonesia as a place to explore. Maybe these direct flights will tempt me to remedy that.