Seventeen people were injured when a Hong Kong Airlines flight ran into severe turbulence on the way from Bali island in Indonesia to Hong Kong.

The Airbus A330-200 with 204 passengers and 12 crew on board returned to Bali about two and a half hours into the flight and landed safely at 4.34am, said Trikora Harjo, general manager of Bali's Ngurah Rai airport.

The plane encountered the turbulence above Kalimantan, Indonesia's part of Borneo, he said.

Most of the casualties suffered head bruises and there were no serious injuries, Mr Harjo added.

Three crew members and eight passengers were taken to hospital while six others were treated at the airport clinic, he said.

There was no damage to the plane, but an inspection was under way.

Ninety-five passengers were flown to Hong Kong on board a Garuda Indonesia plane on Saturday morning while the rest were waiting at the airport and hotels.

It was the second such incident involving Airbus planes over Indonesian territory in the past four days.

On Wednesday, an Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi ran into sudden turbulence as it prepared to land in the Indonesian capital, injuring 31 passengers and a member of the crew.