AirAsia scouting for new hubs outside Metro Manila
Low-cost carrier AirAsia Philippines is going full steam in expanding its touch points outside the country’s capital region amid tourism growth.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, its new president Suresh Bangah said the company has started route studies and cost analyses to assess the potential of launching new bases.
“In terms of growth, we are looking at probably having bases out of Manila. We are currently doing the route study, the impact, and we should have within this next month or so our plan for extension of routes out of Manila to other bases,” Bangah said.
Bohol, Clark, Cebu and Tacloban are among the areas being considered, the executive noted.
Bangah said that focusing on Manila was still the better approach, noting it was cost-effective. However, capacity limitations at the airport bar the group from launching more flights from the main air hub.
“Obviously, if we get more slots in Manila, we would like to fly out of Manila because it’s better to concentrate the operations in one area because it’s cheaper … but we’ll have to work with the airport authority,” he said.
The official is confident the carrier would be able to increase its presence outside Manila, particularly in the last quarter of 2025.
For the first six months, AirAsia flew more than 3 million passengers. The firm, however, could not immediately provide the comparable data from the same period last year. It hopes to end the year with 6 to 7 million passengers, Bangah said.
The group’s strongest domestic routes during the period were Caticlan, Cebu and Cagayan de Oro.
Japan, South Korea and Taipei, meanwhile, logged load factors of 88 to 91 percent. Passenger load factor measures the percentage of available seating capacity in an aircraft. A higher figure means higher occupancy or more tickets sold.
AirAsia plans to boost its fleet from 15 to 19 aircraft by year end.
