AirAsia eyes more local routes with prepandemic fleet count

AirAsia Philippines hopes to restore its aircraft fleet to prepandemic level next year while also expanding its local destination network.

Ricky Isla, the budget carrier’s CEO, said in an event last week the airline currently operates a 16-jet fleet but it was planning to reactivate more planes.

“And coming soon, hopefully next year, we’ll go back to 24 aircraft,” he said.

Isla said they were eyeing to relaunch their flights to Zamboanga and General Santos. Prior to the pandemic, the carrier was flying these routes twice daily.

The airline official said having more players in these routes would make fares more competitive and benefit passengers.

“Right now, since there are only two players … which are our friendly competitors, there’s a tendency for prices to go up,” he said. As the third player, AirAsia also has the responsibility to bring down prices, he added.

Other target destinations for AirAsia include Dumaguete, Legazpi, Tuguegarao and Butuan.

The airline hopes to copy the success of its Boracay route, which is making a killing not just during the summer season.

In January to August, the budget carrier flew 1.1 million passengers to the popular white beach in Aklan. This figure is already nearing the 2023 full-year volume of 1.3 million.

In the first half, AirAsia Philippines saw its passenger volume increase by 9 percent to 3.58 million in total. It operated 21,338 flights in the same period, up 7 percent from the previous year.

As of June, its passenger load factor stood at 93 percent, up by 2 percentage points from a year ago.

Passenger load factor measures how much of an airline’s carrying capacity was utilized. A higher figure means higher occupancy or more tickets sold. —Tyrone Jasper C. Piad INQ