AirAsia Philippines kickstarted its operations in Roxas City, its 16th domestic destination on Thursday, June 16.
Its maiden flight Z2 343, departed from the NAIA Terminal 4 at 7:15am today and arrived at the Roxas City Airport at 8:30am, carrying 180 guests including AirAsia CEO Ricky Isla and airasia Super App Managing Director Ray Berja.
Its return flight to Manila, Z2 344, departed Roxas City Airport at 9:10am with a full load, and arrived at the NAIA T4 at 10:25am.
AirAsia is initially set to fly to Roxas City 3x weekly, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Roxas City accepts local and foreign tourists with just the vaccination card as entry requirements.
“We are happy to have successfully launched our maiden flight in Roxas. The pandemic may have pushed back the opening but it also allowed us to focus on strengthening the viability of this route," remarked AirAsia Philippines CEO Ricky Isla.
"We are confident that this expansion will also help in stimulating commerce and growth in other booming sectors, such as ICT and trade,” he noted.
The so-called seafood capital of the Philippines attracts local and foreign tourists because of its easy access to other key cities in Western Visayas including Islas de Gigantes.
Roxas City is also becoming an Information Communications Technology (ICT) hub with a number of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies investing in the city.