Jetstar Naively Puts Hand Up To Do Proposed Newcastle–Bali Flights

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

The nation’s premiere budget carrier Jetstar has thrown their support behind a move by the City of Newcastle to begin international flights.

First stop for the steel city would be the island state of Bali in Indonesia, a move that some in the industry have labelled as “naive” and “plain dangerous”.

Aviation experts have suggested that Newcastle perhaps put their “international training wheels” on and begin offering flights, on Jetstar, to expensive, boring places like Auckland and Hobart.

“Places where your average grey haired, intrepid traveller would go,” he said.

“Starting with Bali, with people from the Lower Hunter and Central Coast, is the equivalent of crossing the Volga during the Battle of Stalingrad, being thrown a magazine of bullets and told to pick up a gun when the guy ahead of you gets blown up,”

“Jetstar might think they have the most experience in herding bogan from one spot to another but this is a whole new paradigm. These people work hard, they play hard.”

Bali is fast becoming the most dangerous place for Australians since the army’s withdrawal from Afghanistan’s Uruzgan Province. DFAT has issued a travel warning to Bali just last week warning travellers not to strap bags of heroin to themselves if they plan to travel there.

More to come.