Hangzhou, Taipei and Osaka: AirAsia eyes new flights from Philippines

BANGKOK, Thailand — Southeast Asian budget airline AirAsia is looking to add several more flights to its operations this year, including a route from Manila to Osaka during the last quarter of 2018.

This development comes just weeks after Philippines AirAsia opened its Manila-Bangkok route which has been fully booked since it was offered to the public.

According to Capt. Dexter Comendador, Philippines AirAsia chief, they were looking to open flight routes from Cebu, Clark and Manila to a host of Asian cities this 2018, including Hangzhou and Shenzhen in China, Taipei in Taiwan and Osaka, Japan.

Comendador said that they were also hoping to add Narita, Japan to this list this year.

Comendador and AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said that one issue they needed to deal with in expanding their routes was the capacity of airports to accommodate new flights.

“Partly, the airport has been an issue in getting slots, etcetera, so we just been told that we can apply for Manila to Busan,” Fernandes told reporters during the company’s celebration of servicing its 500 millionth passenger.

Comendador said that difficulties in getting slots for their flights were one reason why the Manila-Bangkok route was opened only last month instead of the original target of first quarter of 2018.

In big tourist markets such as China, another issue that AirAsia is facing is the limited airway given to flights coming from the Philippines as there is only one gateway for Filipino planes.

“It’s the design of the airway. Probably, China designed it that way to monitor the flights going into China,” he said during an interview with Philstar.com, adding that this can delay a significant number of flights from the country by several minutes to two hours.

He said that President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to shut down Boracay for six months affected Philippines AirAsia’s thrust for this year.

With Boracay’s closure, Comendador said that AirAsia prioritized helping their passengers to try to find ways to help them to go to other destinations in the country such as Bohol and General Santos City.

He said that Bohol should serve as a template for other regions and provinces in the country in developing their tourism industry.

The Philippines AirAsia’s CEO said that Bohol had been able to prepare the needed infrastructure needed for tourism even before the opening of its airport later this year.

Bohol also marketed itself as a province and not just in terms of its individual tourist attractions, Comendador said.

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Editor's note: The tour to Bangkok, Thailand was hosted by AirAsia to promote tourism in the area. At no stage does the host organization have a say in the stories generated from the coverage, interviews conducted, publication date and story treatment. Content is produced solely by Philstar.com following editorial guidelines.