Sunlight Air to expand route network in 2025
Boutique airline Sunlight Air is keen on expanding its route network this year with the acquisition of another aircraft.
In a statement on Wednesday, the carrier said it had procured an ATR 72-600, which has a seating capacity of up to 68 passengers.
READ: New year, new jets for rich Filipinos
This will join its existing fleet of three ATR 72-500s. In 2024, the airline said it was planning to buy or lease two more units in the next two to three years.
“As we enter the new year, we find that there are more growth opportunities that come with the continuous increase of passenger demands,” Sunlight Air CEO Ryna Brito-Garcia said.
Article continues after this advertisement“Sunlight Air is on a constant mission to upgrade flight frequency and efficiency as a top domestic carrier in the Philippines,” she added.
Article continues after this advertisementThe airline executive told the Inquirer they would like to “increase frequency to Busuanga and explore destinations like Siquijor.”
The carrier currently flies from Clark, Cebu and Manila airports going to Boracay, Coron, Siargao and Cagayan de Oro.
Brito-Garcia previously said they have been seeing a “big” demand for private flights heading to island destinations for both business and leisure purposes.
Interest began at the peak of the pandemic as a way to limit exposure to the virus, she said.
Sunlight Air operates, on average, two private flights per month. Passengers pay P203,000 per hour.
Meanwhile, in terms of private jet ownership, French aerospace company Dassault Aviation said that rich Filipinos are likely to upgrade their aging private jets this year.
Based on a report by aviation consultancy firm Asian Sky Group, the average fleet age of private aircraft in the Philippines was 15.2 years or two years older than the rest of the business jets in Asia Pacific.
The report said there were 48 business jets in the Philippines by the end of 2023, most of which were Gulfstream’s s G650ER, G150, G450 and Textron’s CJ4 and Citation Excel.