Budget airlines reopen more overseas routes

Local budget airlines continue to add more flights to Asian destinations to complement their expansion of domestic network routes given improving passenger traffic.

Gokongwei-led Cebu Pacific relaunched a direct flight from Cebu via Mactan Cebu International Airport Terminal 2 to Singapore last week. The route operates three times per week. The budget carrier said this flight would also allow passengers from Clark, Davao, Dumaguete and Zamboanga, among others, to directly fly to Singapore via Cebu.

“We are excited to bring this route back to allow more passengers from Cebu and the rest of our network, especially those in the Visayas and Mindanao regions to fly internationally without passing through Manila. This route resumption is part of our continuous efforts to restore our prepandemic systemwide capacity,” said Cebu Pacific chief commercial officer Xander Lao.

Earlier this month, Cebu Pacific also restarted flights to Seoul from Cebu.

Cebu Pacific is also set to increase weekly flights for Cebu-Iloilo route to nine times and Cebu-Tacloban route to 16 times next month.

AirAsia’s expansion

AirAsia Philippines, meanwhile, recently resumed flights to Bangkok, Thailand, and Bali, Indonesia, from Manila.

The low-cost airline offers twice-a-week flights to both destinations.

“Reopening our Bangkok and Bali routes is part of our aggressive route expansion strategy as we sustain the momentum to recovery. In terms of our prepandemic figures, Bangkok ranked 7th among the most visited destinations, with Bali claiming the 10th spot out of the 32 AirAsia Philippines domestic and international routes,” AirAsia Philippines CEO Ricky Isla said.

Prior to this, it also reopened routes to Kota Kinabalu, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia and South Korea.

AirAsia Philippines is banking on the so-called revenge spending to boost demand for air travel. INQ