AirAsia PH unit starts Clark-Singapore route

Budget carrier AirAsia Inc. launched its new Clark-to-Singapore route on Saturday, adding another international route to its expanding regional network.

AirAsia Philippines, the only local airline based in Clark, Pampanga, had its Flight PQ 7491, operated by an all-Filipino flight and cabin crew, leave for Singapore from the Clark International Airport at 6:10 a.m on Oct. 15.

The company’s Airbus A320 jet arrived at the Terminal 1 of Singapore’s Changi Airport at 9:40 a.m. carrying 180 passengers. AirAsia will have flights to Singapore from Clark once a day.

“Today’s [flight] reaffirms our commitment to help drive tourism and trade in the country, especially in Clark, Pampanga, where we base our operations,” AirAsia commercial group head Fred Herrera said.

“With our newest routes and low fares, we are connecting more and more people from the Philippines to Singapore and to AirAsia’s extensive network covering 85 destinations in 24 countries,” he said.

AirAsia’s Clark-Singapore inaugural flight was preceded by a brief ceremony at the Widus Convention Center in Clark, Pampanga, attended by officials from Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC), the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Singapore Tourism Board.

“Singapore is an attractive destination for Filipinos and AirAsia will make it even more attractive for our guests with our super-low promo fares, reliable and on-time service,” Herrera said.

There are 177,600 Filipinos in Singapore with 106,600 of them working as professionals and the remaining 71,000 as domestic helpers, according to the Philippine embassy in Singapore.

“AirAsia’s daily routes to Singapore cater to the growing demand for both business and leisure travel and, equally important, this new route will provide low-cost, high-value service for our OFWs in Singapore so they can come home and reunite with their families as often as possible,” Herrera added.

The availability of the Singapore flights was first announced last September. This will add to AirAsia’s existing service to Hong Kong, Macau in China, and Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia.

AirAsia Inc. is the Philippine unit of Malaysia’s budget airline giant AirAsia Berhad.