Canberrans are now able to fly direct to Indonesia for the first time, with flights between the capital and Bali starting today — but it hasn't been smooth travelling for everyone.

The inaugural Batik Air flight carrying passengers direct from Denpasar touched down in Canberra an hour early, before the return flight took off a couple of hours later.

Ryan Hopping was one of the passengers on the flight to Bali, and said the chance to fly direct from Canberra was "super exciting".

"The direct flight was the game-changer for us. We could easily [travel] from Canberra instead of having to go through Sydney or Melbourne," he said.

University student Sayu Thanaya, who is from Bali, was also on the flight, and said she was "really happy".

"Being a university student here in Canberra, it is really convenient having a flight that can take me straight home," she said.

But not everyone's travel plans went as smoothly, with some passengers on future flights expressing frustration online after being given new travel dates.

Batik representative Ram Chabra said the airline had cancelled two upcoming flights, adding the airline had been working through "teething problems".

"Any new route, new flight, there is a bit of tweaking here and there," he said.

"All of those passengers have been contacted. They have either been given a date change to another departure date out of Canberra, or have been re-routed via Sydney or Melbourne."

Mr Chabra said the airline was committed to running three flights a week, but said if demand warranted it, more flights could be added.

"A lot of external factors will depend on the success of the flight. We really rely on local Canberrans to support this flight," he said.

"We hope to get more inbound support, and that would require the Indonesian tourists [to] come in to Canberra, so we hope Canberra can showcase what Canberra has to offer."

Now that Batik has delivered the flight, Mr Chabra said the onus of responsibility was "on the ACT government, Canberra Airport, both Canberra and Bali tourism" to ensure the route was successful.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said he hoped the flight was the start of a "strong and long-term relationship between Canberra Airport, Batik Air and Visit Canberra".

"Hopefully it moves from three, to four, to five times a week," he said.

It's the second international service flying from the capital, after Fiji Airways began operating flights between Canberra and Nadi last year.

Canberra Airport head of aviation Michael Thomson said new routes take time to get established.

"We've seen that with Fiji Airways. Their numbers are now really good and they are continuing to grow, and we'd expect a very similar sort of thing with Batik," he said.

Mr Thomson said the airport was "working hard" to have more international destinations.

"We'd like to think, in the next five years, we'll get up to about seven international destinations," he said.

"The success of any route comes down to having passengers on those flights."