AirAsia PH eyes full recovery by April or May next year. —CONTRIBUTED
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AirAsia Philippines is restarting international flights by December this year beginning with trips to Taiwan and Singapore.
Part of the gradual recovery of its network, the move followed the steady implementation of COVID-19 vaccinations and the likely resurgence of air travel demand, CEO Ricardo Isla said during a media briefing on Wednesday.
Furthermore, the company is supporting steps to remove RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) testing for fully vaccinated domestic travelers, which is expected to further stimulate demand.
He said this would lead to the “full recovery” of its prepandemic domestic network by April or May next year from under 20 percent today.
Apart from AirAsia Philippines, affiliates in Thailand and Malaysia are also preparing to restore flights to Manila.
AirAsia Philippines spokesperson Steve Dailisan said during the briefing the decision to restart internationals flights in December was to cater to returning Filipino workers from overseas.
In its domestic-only operations, Isla said AirAsia Philippines was hitting a passenger load of about 78 percent.
The carrier is also looking to add flights to Cebu, Boracay, Bohol and open trips to Dumaguete and Roxas City. It also announced that flights to Cebu and Davao via the Clark International Airport hub could reopen by February next year.
The budget carrier, part of Malaysia-based AirAsia Group, was encouraged by recent survey results showing strong pent-up demand for travel.
Top destinations in the survey were Boracay (26 percent), Manila (12 percent), Siargao (10 percent), Cebu (8 percent), Bohol (6 percent) and Coron (6 percent).
To prepare for international travel, AirAsia Philippines said vaccine information could soon be verified through the AirAsia super app.
The carrier said the travel health icon would be made available following the app’s integration with the VaxCertPH platform of the Department of Information and Communications Technology and the Department of Health.
AirAsia Philippines also joined other domestic carriers in pushing for the shortened five-day to zero quarantine period for fully vaccinated international travelers.
In a separate statement on Wednesday, the AirAsia Group said it was named the word’s best low-cost carrier for the 12th straight year by SkyTrax.
“What we have achieved in the past 18 months during the downtime in flying is incredible,” AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said in the statement. INQ