AirAsia Philippines' passenger growth skyrocketed 553 percent on April 2022 versus the same month last year, an indicator of its strong momentum towards recovery, the airline announced Thursday, May 12.
The budget carrier enters mid-second quarter 2022 with a high 306 percent growth in total guests flown from January to April versus the same period in 2021.
The influx of passengers showed high mobility rate in the Philippines amid the election season.
Interestingly, a total of 91,997 guests availed of the airline's election-specific promos in the past two months.
Confidence to travel also rose significantly post-Omicron surge as observed in AirAsia’s forward booking rate.
In April alone, the airline was able to achieve 63 percent of its pre-pandemic figures for travel happening in two to three months, while it reached 39 percent for bookings 90 days ahead of travel date and beyond.
Caticlan (Boracay), Kalibo, Cebu, Tagbilaran (Panglao) and Tacloban still remained the top destinations of choice amongst AirAsia guests.
"Apart from the interzonal travel vis-a-vis the elections, the number of guests we have flown and the rise in advance bookings by at least two months in the past quarter are representative of the strong momentum toward recovery, which is sure to reinforce our country’s economic standing as we ready to exit the pandemic,” says AirAsia Philippines CEO Ricky Isla.
To sustain its momentum for the next quarters, AirAsia Philippines also increased its weekly flight frequency for the month of May by 16 percent.
AirAsia Philippines flies to Caticlan 35x weekly as of May 10, which will be increased to 38x by the end of the month; Iloilo – 18x weekly and will be increased to 30x weekly; Tacloban 28x weekly; Tagbilaran – 21x weekly; Puerto Princesa – 19x weekly; Bacolod – 18x weekly, but will be increased to 21x by the end of the month; Davao 14x weekly; Cagayan – 9x weekly, and will be increased to 11x before the end of the month; Kalibo 18x to 27x weekly before the end of the month; and Cebu – 28x weekly.
Forward bookings for the month of May have also started to pick-up with close to 130,000 seats already sold.
“We expect the demand to increase towards the end of Q2 for travels which will be made for Q3 and Q4," according to Isla.