Friday, May 14, 2010

Fewer flights to Padang PDG for 2010 season

I've been shopping around for my own trip to Sumatra this August, which requires me to reach Padang, Sumatra. I still plan to go via Jakarta, but there seem to be a lot fewer flights this year (and somewhat higher prices).

  • Air Asia had 3-4 flights per day Jakarta CGK to Padang PDG and appears to have withdrawn entirely from that route.
  • The short hop Air Asia flight between Kuala Lumpur and Padang is down to a few times a week from the daily service that I recall last season.
  • The previously few-times-a-week Tiger Air flights from Singapore are gone entirely.

It's hard to know what drives the commercial decisions of airlines (problem in Padang? better opportunity elsewhere?). It's not out of the question that last fall's earthquake has hit travel budgets as people and companies focus on rebuilding instead instead of travel. Some of the nicest hotels in Padang were also flattened, hurting tourism infrastructure. Hopefully things will pick up again but as always with Indonesia domestic flights it's really hard to depend on flight schedules very far in advance.