AirAsia starts re-fleeting and strengthening its Philippine hub in 2024 and sees the country as a key destination for further expansion in ASEAN and beyond, Capital A Chief Executive Officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes announced during his Monday, June 5 visit here.

Overall, Capital A, AirAsia Philippines’ parent company, is expanding its fleet amid anticipated worldwide shortages in aircraft supplies.

“We have an ordered book of over 400 planes," he disclosed. "That order book starts next year with a delivery of five A321s over the next few years.”

“For the Philippines, it’s the combination of getting some leased and new aircraft,” Fernandes added.

The local carrier has a current fleet of 16 aircraft which it targets to double by 2024. Furthermore, ot will add wide-body aircraft to boost its reach and capacity.

AirAsia Philippines continues to manifest positive growth in the past months as reflected in the increase in load factor which registered at 91 percent last May.

Todate, the budget carrier flies to 11 domestic and 13 international destinations with plans of expanding existing Cebu, Clark, and Kalibo hubs by mounting more regional routes to Japan, Korea, and China.

AirAsia Philippines also continues to increase its manpower to support its growing business demand. r

For the first five months of the year, it has added 318 new employees to its roste and more will be added as it mounts a two-day cabin crew recruitment this week, from June 8 - 9.

“We are back,” according to Fernandes. “We’ve said for a long time we want to bring tourists to the Philippines, we were on our way, and then COVID came, so we will start again. This is an amazing country and deserves for the world to know about it.”

“The aviation sector has really bounced back stronger and is driven towards further growth," he elaborated.

"Leisure is very strong which continues to drive high ticket sales. Looking at the spending attitude, people will spend first on travel before anything else. This will further stir travel demand stronger and stronger,” Fernandes added.

AirAsia will continue to introduce more routes for the international market while maintaining a world-class service backed by the lowest fares in the market today.

AirAsia Philippines’ parent company Capital A closed Q1 2023 with a revenue of RM2.5 billion or $546 million.

Its fleet of 157 aircraft is now back in the air, flying to 165 destinations in 25 countries.

Total deliveries made by its air logistics provider made a total of 5.7 million deliveries for Q1 2023. Monthly active users of Superapp on the other hand increased to 12.9 million users.