MANILA, Philippines — The growth in domestic travel remained unaffected by the threat of the Omicron variant last month (January), low-cost carrier AirAsia Philippines said.
AirAsia Philippines said its data showed that the increase in COVID cases in January did not affect domestic travel as the company recouped 42 percent of its pre-COVID flight frequency during the month.
The airline said its capacity for January rose by 182 percent from the same month last year, while seats sold soared 200 percent year-on-year.
Load factor has also increased by 10 percent, with Caticlan, Cebu and Tacloban dominating the top destinations for both leisure and essential travels, it said.
In preparation for a possible influx of travelers, AirAsia Philippines started to gradually increase its domestic flights slated for this month for Davao, Iloilo, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod, Puerto Princesa, Panglao and Kalibo.
“We will continue to service our guests this 2022 with safe and timely flights. We, in the travel industry, also have our sights set on cautiously restoring our pre-pandemic flight frequency this year as we are positive the pandemic will take a turn for the better before end-2022,” AirAsia Philippines spokesperson Steve Dailisan said.
“This is on top of ensuring that in spite of challenges posed by emerging variants and new protocols, our operations are at an optimum – allowing us to avoid flight disruptions,” he said.
To date, AirAsia Philippines is running on an on-time performance of 80 percent, which means that most, if not all of its flights are able to meet the scheduled departure and arrival in all of its destinations, except for situations and incidents beyond the control of the airline.
“We will continue to embrace changes and thrive towards post-pandemic recovery in the first quarter of 2022. Our system in place is proven to work to our advantage and we will keep it that way to ensure that we will be able to service our guests in the coming months, bringing them home safe and sound,” Dailisan said.