AirAsia nears full restoration of int’l capacity

AFP PHOTO/TED ALJIBE

AirAsia Philippines is eyeing to fully restore its international capacity this year with the further easing of border restrictions in several countries, including China, which has been supporting its recovery.

“With the reopening of the China market, we are highly optimistic in restoring our international capacity this year,” said Steve Dailisan, the budget carrier’s head of communications and public affairs.

The low-cost airline previously expressed interest on mounting flights again to China following its reopening.

Apart from this, it is scheduled to restart its flights to Tokyo, Japan, via Narita International Airport next month.

This month, it reopened its flights to Kaohsiung, Taiwan, which are available three times per week.

AirAsia Philippines CEO Ricky Isla previously said they were looking forward to “reopening more international routes and air travel in the eastern region of Asia.”

Its competitor Cebu Pacific recently reported its international flight capacities were set to return to prepandemic level by March with the reopening of more routes.

Rising load factor

Meanwhile, AirAsia Philippines also said they capped off the first month of the year with a 90-percent average load factor, showing 10-percent growth from the same period in 2022.

Top destinations for local flights were Caticlan, Cebu, Tagbilaran, Davao and Iloilo. For international routes, the most preferred were Seoul, Bangkok, Osaka and Tokyo.

“January has set up the pace for AirAsia Philippines. We have seen an uptick in travel demand in the past 25 days and this is due to the reopening of more international destinations during the fourth quarter of 2022,” Dailisan said.

International aircraft leasing company Avolon, in a recent statement, said that global aviation traffic was expected to keep its momentum with Asia driving the growth for air travel demand with the reopening of China.

It is even projecting passenger movement to recover to prepandemic levels by June given the further mobility.

The global aviation sector is expected to generate $4.7 billion in profits this year given the bullish outlook for recovery, Avolon said.