The Gillard Labor Government has signed a new Memorandum of Understanding which almost doubles the number of flights which can be operated between Australia and Indonesia.

This is good news for Australians looking for more competitive fares to destinations like Bali and Jakarta. It’s also a boost for our tourism industry and economy as it improves access to Australia for Indonesian tourists, students and business travellers.

In the 12 months to April this year, more than 1.8 million people travelled between Australia and Indonesia.

This important market has been growing at an average of 32 per cent every year over the past three years.

It is important that our aviation services keep up with the strong growth in demand for travel between our two nations.

Effective immediately, this deal increases the capacity available for services to and from Australia to up to 27,500 seats each way, each week – an 86 per cent increase on current capacity of 14,800 seats.

The deal includes:

• Up to 25,000 seats a week for airlines of each nation travelling to and from Australia's major ‘gateway’ destinations (Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane) each way, every week;


• Up to 2,500 additional seats a week on routes into and out of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth as long as those additional flights make stopovers at a regional international airport such as Adelaide, Darwin or Cairns; and


• A fully open code share framework which will allow airlines of both sides to offer consumers more choice and competition through cooperative arrangements with other airlines to broaden their networks.

This new deal furthers the Gillard Labor Government's efforts, as outlined in our National Aviation White Paper, to lift the contribution aviation makes to building a stronger Australian economy.