DAVAO CITY -- Low-cost carrier AirAsia Zest is keen on serving routes within the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines-East ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) by 2016, starting with Davao-Kota Kinabalu. “We are excited about opening up the Davao-Kota Kinabalu route and are planning more routes in the future because of the incentives offered by the government,” Joy Cañeba, AirAsia Zest chief executive officer, said on Oct. 24 during the launch of the airline’s newest routes from Cebu to the cities of Davao in southern Mindanao and Cagayan de Oro in the north of the island. Arturo P. Boncato, assistant secretary of the Department of Tourism, said the government is encouraging private sector investments that will improve the connectivity of the EAGA member countries through discounts on landing fees. Ms. Cañeba also said the airline is considering making the Francisco Bangoy International Airport in Davao the airline’s hub with the planned EAGA expansion. “We are looking at an 80% load factor,” she said, referring to possible flights between Davao and the rest of the subregion, particularly Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia. The company is also evaluating Davao-Kalibo, the Aklan gateway to the island destination of Boracay. Mr. Boncato assured the airline executives of government assistance in ensuring that the planned services will be sustained. “We can discuss the steps that we need to take so that the traffic becomes sustainable,” he said. On the two new twice-daily domestic routes, Ms. Cañeba said: “When you talk of traffic, it’s crazy not to be in Cebu. It’s also the same case with Davao.” Flights to the new destinations will commence on Dec. 12 but the airline started promotional ticket sales last week. The Cebu-Davao flights give Davao passengers the potential to connect to Singapore when the airline’s Cebu-Singapore service launches in February. “AirAsia is committed in connecting communities in the Philippines, in the region and beyond… This is just the start since we are cautious about opening new routes but we certainly do have plans,” Ms. Cañeba said. AirAsia used to operate Manila-Davao flights but discontinued the service “as it was not feasible during that time,” according to the AirAsia official. “We were not able to provide the service we would have wanted to provide to our customers in the said route so we closed it down, but we are now ready to do that and see this as a sustainable route now,” said Ms. Cañeba, adding that the merger process between AirAsia and Zest Air at that time affected operations. The two companies announced their merger in March 2013, with AirAsia headed by Malaysia’s Tony Fernandes acquiring 49% of Zest. AirAsia also used to operate Kalibo-Shanghai flights but pulled out due to low passenger traffic following a travel warning by the Chinese Embassy on the Philippines. Aside from domestic routes, AirAsia currently has international flights to Incheon and Seoul in South Korea, and Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia. -- Carmencita A. Carillo and Carmelito Q. Francisco Source: bworldonline/content.php?title=airasia-zest-evaluating-more-bimp-eaga-flights&id=96702
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 03:30:59 +0000
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