AirAsia mounts repatriation missions in Indonesia & Sri Lanka
MANILA, Philippines—AirAsia Philippines brought home over 100 overseas Filipino workers stranded in Indonesia and Sri Lanka earlier this month—the latest among hundreds of repatriation missions flown since the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
The budget carrier said on Tuesday (Aug. 17) that it flew 39 seafarers from Hang Nadim Airport, Batam, Indonesia last Aug. 10 and another 100 seafarers from Matalla, Sri Lanka on Aug. 5.
AirAsia will continue to mount chartered flights from Sri Lanka to Manila every Thursday while Batam-Manila flights will be flown on a “per request basis from partner manning agencies.”
AirAsia also chartered flights mainly serving OFWs to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia every Saturday and weekly flights to Canton (Guangzhou), China for Chinese residents.
“AirAsia Philippines has always been a staunch partner of the government and the private sector in ensuring the safe return of our OFWs,” said AirAsia Philippines spokesperson Steve Dailisan in a statement.
“We are happy to be there for our seafarers who need to change ships and schedules and be home with their families in these very challenging times,” he said.
“These chartered repatriation flights go both ways, allowing us to realize other revenue streams such as cargo, while being of service to our kababayans,” he added.
AirAsia Philippines had completed at least 600 chartered repatriation and sweeper flights from Palau, India, Indonesia and Myanmar since last year, serving almost 50,000 OFWs. The carrier also provides special domestic flights for OFWs returning to their home provinces after completing quarantine.
