MANILA, Philippines--South East Asian Airlines, or SEAIR, hopes to corner a big chunk of the travel market of the East ASEAN Growth Area (EAGA) when it starts offering direct flights from Puerto Princesa City in the western province of Palawan to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia late this month.

The EAGA links adjacent parts of the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN.

SEAIR president Avelino Zapanta said in an interview that the low-cost airline’s first regional service sought to promote tourism in the region.

The new SEAIR service covers Clark-Caticlan (Boracay)-Puerto Princesa-Kota Kinabalu.

“The four-point route opens up flights from Kota Kinabalu to Puerto Princesa and Boracay, which we want to promote to more travellers as gateways between the Philippines and the BIMP-EAGA region,” Zapanta said.

SEAIR also plans to fly to Singapore, Macau, Incheon, Bangkok and Kaoshiung. It is expecting delivery of two new Airbuses in the first quarter of 2009.

The airline earlier said it accounted for more than 35 percent of all flights in January-October this year to Caticlan, the jump-off point to the resort island of Boracay, to which three other carriers fly.

“SEAIR made 3,511 flights to and from Caticlan,” said Patrick Tan, SEAIR vice president for commercial affairs. “This translates to 635 flights more than our nearest competitor. This service will add further to the connectivity to Boracay with twice-a-week flights direct from Caticlan to Puerto Princesa.”

“We believe in tourism as the industry of the future for the Philippines and SEAIR wishes to continue to contribute in the tradition of its pioneering effort that started 14 years and recently has been manifested in new services to Tablas, Daet, Baler, Basco and Borongan,” Tan added. Edited by INQUIRER.net