AirAsia Philippines is determined to achieve its pre-pandemic international capacity by second quarter of 2023 and surpass its records by the second half, CEO Ricky Isla announced Tuesday, October 18.
Already, "The demand for international travel is getting stronger every month as more countries relax their border protocols," he stated.
"We plan on increasing our frequency to our current routes and grow our number of destinations before the year ends," Isla added.
As of the fourth quarter of 2022, Singapore and South Korea remain as AirAsia PH's top international destinations.
To sustain the momentum, the budget carrier is strengthening its partnership with transportation and tourism agencies present in its top routes.
Recently, the airline's top executives met with policymakers from Singapore and South Korea to reaffirm its commitment to drive larger foot traffic to these countries this fourth quarter.
AirAsia Philippines CEO Ricky Isla and AirAsia Singapore CEO Logan Velaitham paid a courtesy visit to Dr. Emmanuel Fernandez, Chargé d’Affaires and Consul General of the Philippine Embassy in Singapore to discuss the growing demand for Manila-Singapore flights.
Singapore ranks third to fourth of top-preferred destinations by AirAsia guests as the airline flies to the Lion City four times weekly.
Isla and Velaitham also touched on bringing AirAsia’s cargo, BigPay and Super App verticals, to Singapore in service of Filipinos living in the country.
Isla also met with Hon. Yonghyun Choi, First Secretary & Infrastructure and Transportation Attache from the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the Philippines, to discuss the current frequency of the airline to Seoul: Manila (7x weekly) and Cebu (3x weekly).
AirAsia Philippines is increasing its Cebu-Seoul frequency to four times a week this November.
Significantly, 55 percent of total sales from thr budget carrier"s recent BDO Travel sale came from travel bookings going to Seoul, Singapore, Osaka and Bangkok.
In the domestic market, Caticlan remains at the top of the list of preferred destinations.
**media**
Airline executives also met with Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco to align the budget carrier's growth and recovery plan with the vision of the agency for the local tourism sector.
Among the highlights of the discussion are the need for better regional connectivity, an expanded inter-island route network, and the promotion of lesser-known local destinations.
Philippines AirAsia, Inc. (PAA) doing business as (dba) AirAsia Philippines (with flight code Z2) flies to a total of 15 domestic destinations and 15 international destinations as of April 2022.
It was officially launched as the fourth Airline Operations Center (AOC) of the AirAsia group in 2012.