Australia and Indonesia have just rewritten their aviation rulebook. The two countries updated their bilateral air services agreement for the first time in 15 years, unlocking an extra 5,000 seats per week between them — and Qantas and Jetstar moved fast to claim most of them.
Qantas is taking up 4,500 of those weekly seats across three moves. From December 14, 2026, it will fly daily from Perth to Jakarta on a Boeing 737-800, going head-to-head with Batik Air on a route that currently has no Qantas presence. Then from August 1, 2027, a daily 737-800 service will link Brisbane with Bali, filling one of the few gaps in the island's Australian network. Qantas also wants to lift its four-weekly Melbourne–Jakarta service to daily, swapping the Airbus A330-200 for the smaller, newer A321XLR between late March and October.
The most surprising addition comes from Jetstar: daily nonstop flights from Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport to Bali, expected to start March 15. That's notable because Western Sydney's new airport only opens later this year, and Bali would become its fourth international route alongside Air New Zealand to Auckland, Singapore Airlines to Changi, and VietJet to Ho Chi Minh City. Expect a morning departure out of Sydney and a mid-afternoon return from Bali.
Bali needs little introduction for Australian travellers — more than 1.6 million of them flew there last year, and every major Australian city already has a nonstop option. But the agreement isn't just about pumping more seats into Denpasar. Australian Transport Minister Catherine King flagged that the extra capacity should eventually open up new destinations across Indonesia, not just the established holiday hotspots.
Competition is heating up on these routes too. Garuda, AirAsia, TransNusa and Batik Air all fly between the two countries, and more seats usually means better fares. Bali alone is connected to 13 Australian destinations, from Cairns and Darwin to Avalon and the Sunshine Coast.
If you're in Brisbane or Perth, the practical takeaway is a second or new nonstop option to Indonesia with full-service Qantas rather than a low-cost carrier — handy if you value checked bags, meals and status credits built into the fare. For Sydney-siders in the city's west, Jetstar's Bali route could spare you the trek across town to Kingsford Smith entirely. Capacity is expected to be fully used by early November next year, so booking early on the new routes should pay off before fares firm up.
Whether this genuinely opens up lesser-visited parts of Indonesia — think Labuan Bajo, Yogyakarta or Flores via connection — remains to be seen, but the extra seat count makes onward connections easier to price and book. Either way, the Perth–Jakarta launch in December is the first one to watch.
