AirAsia PH to add more aircraft this year

AirAsia Philippines is targeting to have 24 aircraft in operation by year-end as it seeks to relaunch more routes to international destinations with the reopening of borders. Ricky Isla, CEO of the low-cost airline, told the reporters at an event in Malaysia last week they have 10 aircraft currently servicing passengers and were expecting to add two by the end of this month. Isla also expressed the need to secure bigger planes that are more cost efficient and environment friendly to fly more passengers. Currently, AirAsia Philippines is doing market visits to more international destinations, including the Middle East, as it restores passenger capacity with the return of air travel demand. “We are also flying to Australia where there are also a lot of Filipinos,” he said. Isla said the airline was eyeing to include Sandakan in its Sabah network after recently resuming flights to Kota Kinabalu from Manila. As for demand, the AirAsia Philippines official said that 50% of the daily flight ticket purchases were forward bookings. “We see a lot of improvements such that 30 to 60 or even 90 days [ahead], they are already booking their flights, which we never saw towards fourth quarter of 2021. But starting March and April, there were a lot of forward bookings,” he said.<br/>