MANILA, Philippines —Amid the current supply chain crunch troubling the aviation sector, AirAsia Philippines targets to fully restore its fleet to prepandemic level this year as travel demand continues to grow.
Steve Dailisan, spokesperson of the budget carrier, told reporters recently that airlines were having a hard time reactivating aircraft due to supply chain constraint hampering the maintenance of units.
He explained that service orders were piling up now at maintenance, repair and overhaul companies, which are struggling to provide service due to lack of spare parts.
Currently, Dailisan said AirAsia Philippines is operating 16 aircraft.
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The goal is to have 25 aircraft—the same number it was handling prior to the pandemic—by the end of the year. This includes the delivery of Airbus A321, a narrow-body unit that can carry up to 236 passengers.
AirAsia Philippines CEO Ricardo Isla said, “2019 is our base standard. We want to go back to 2019 levels.”
Across the group, AirAsia eyes to have 200 operating aircraft this year, from 190 jets as of end-2023.
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Direct flights to U.S.
AirAsia announced this plan as it seeks to establish a direct flight from Manila to the United States by 2025. This is part of the multi-hub strategy by the low-cost airline, which has presence in Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.
This month, parent company Capital A Berhad sold its aviation business to to AirAsia X Berhad, a sister company of AirAsia Malaysia, to raise funds. AirAsia X is a long-haul budget airline.
The aviation business includes AirAsia Malaysia and AirAsia Aviation Group Ltd. comprising subsidiaries in Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines.
By the conclusion of sale, Capital A will no longer have airline operations under its portfolio that includes logistics, digital payment solution and aviation support services.
All airline operations will then be handled separately by AirAsia X.