Please rank the following inter-island airlines in Indonesia (best to worst)

[Tippytoes12]

We have to fly from Manado to Denpasar next year. The choice for direct flights appears to be either Lion Air or Trans Nusa. We want direct flight because we will have dive gear with us and changes = lost luggage = unhappiness! We have flown Lion Air and have flown a bit in Indonesia. We don't believe times and schedules and expect changes.

We have never flown Trans Nusa but it seems to get a poor rating on the ratings websites. Does anyone have first hand experience of them? Especially welcome any comments about direct flights from Manado to Denpasar.

My husband and I were booked on a direct afternoon flight from Denpasar to Manado late morning and then back mid afternoon from Manado to Denpasar with LionAir. We had time diving in Bali beforehand and then a week on Lembeh and wanted to maximise our diving times. We had more than one reschedule emailed even before we left home and also when we got there. The DPS to Manado was rescheduled, eventually, to an indirect arriving in Manado at 10 pm. This was so stressful, we had no idea if or when we would get to MDC. The MDC to DPS flight was then rescheduled again to 7 am, meaning that we would miss a whole day in Lembeh. At Denpasar Airport we went to the Garuda Desk and bought new tickets, via Jakarta, which worked perfectly ! Lion Air apparently does this all the time and schedules are just estimates of times until eight or so weeks before departure. So so yourself a favour and book with Garuda.

On a happier note on our last day in Lembeh when crossing the straight we had a great spot of a whaleshark from the boat !

 

[Luko]

Does anyone have first hand experience of them? Especially welcome any comments about direct flights from Manado to Denpasar.

I have flown TransNusa on several occasions :
They used to have a flight from Kupang to Alor before COVID, they were very helpful for the connexion time (I remember staff helping to carry and speed up my luggage checkin for a 20 minutes connexion!).
They were the only reliable flights (ie. NOT canceled NOT postponed by hours) for the Sorong to Manado connexion. LionAir is a mess for that route (often canceled or postponed for hours).

I would prefer anyday to fly TransNusa than LionAir for the Manado-Bali route. LionAir usually ends up with unfathomable delays and hours waiting spent in Makassar. UNofrtunately TransNUsa doesn't operate everyday and it's flying unbearably early in the morning (5AM IIRC).