AirAsia to boost flights to Kota Kinabalu

KOTA KINABALU—AirAsia Philippines aims to restore the capacity of its Manila-Kota Kinabalu flight route back to prepandemic level by the fourth quarter given the anticipated surge in demand brought about by “revenge travel” and holiday spending.

Ricky Isla, CEO of the budget carrier, said during a press event on Tuesday evening they were working to increase weekly flights to Sabah’s coastal city to four by October from two currently. AirAsia Philippines has just resumed flying to Kota Kinabalu last May 27.

Doubling the weekly flights will boost the airline’s passenger capacity to 4,000 from 2,000 per month.

Isla is optimistic about future bookings to Kota Kinabalu as the fourth quarter is usually the peak season for air travel.

“We see a lot of Filipinos will be tourists or will be bringing their families to Sabah as one of our sales boosters for the coming Christmas holidays,” he said.

According to Sabah Tourism Board (STB) statistics, Filipinos were among the top Southeast Asian travelers to the Malaysian state in 2019. Tourists from the Philippines rose by 6.1 percent to 35,284 that year, but fell to just 7,278 in 2020 and further to 1,008 last year as the pandemic grounded several flights.

With the easing of mobility restrictions, AirAsia is anticipating better figures moving forward. A recent survey commissioned by the airline showed that Kota Kinabalu in northern Borneo is among Filipinos’ most preferred international destinations.

Noredah Othman, general manager of the STB, said during the same event that the Philippines was one of Sabah’s “prime markets” given the number of Filipinos living in Malaysia as well as the close bilateral ties between the two countries.

“I think our competitive advantage compared to other airlines [is] because Philippines AirAsia is the first to reopen the flight to Sabah and we would like to keep that dominance or that supremacy as we reopen our flights,” Isla added.

Isla said the aim was to restore about 60 percent of AirAsia’s international network capacity by the last quarter and attain 100 percent by the second quarter of next year.