Flight to Manado

Air Asia stopped service from KL to Manado. What is the best and cheapest way to get to Manado from BKK ? Batavia Air looks inexpensive, but they fly very old airplanes. Anyone have experience with them?

Maybe I'll change destinations.... What would be some other good dive spots during the month of October? I like unlimited shore diving and close land based activities such as bird watching, volcano trekking, etc...

Are Thailand and the Philippines mostly off the table during October? Should probably stick with INDO

Thank You

Last time I went I transited in Singapore and flew Silk Air from there to MDC. Silk doesn't have service from BKK, but finding flights to SIN from BKK isn't hard.

I think Bali would be a good option for October. You could dive down at N. Lembognan with the mola-molas and up at Tulamben at the wreck of the Liberty (which can be done as a shore dive), and other places around there. Lots of land-based activity there, too.

All the Indonesian airlines are a bit sketch. Lion, adam, batavia they've all had history of planes crashing. That said, i've taken them because it's cheap. If I went back I'd probably try to stick with Garuda because they seem to be the most reputable.