THE Philippines’ AirAsia expands Davao’s air connectivity to four more major tourism destinations and gateways, a move seen to strengthen the city’s position as the next tourism giant in the country.
This April 22, Air Asia will fly its newest direct routes from Davao to the country’s major destinations: Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Cebu, Clark, Pampanga and Boracay Island via Caticlan.
Philippines AirAsia Chief Executive Officer Captain Dexter Comendador said Thursday, March 9, the opening of new domestic direct flights reaffirms the airline’s commitment to make Davao a major hub and an international gateway.
“With our newest routes, AirAsia would like to provide the much needed connection, tap the underserved markets and grow it, as there is definitely great tourism and business potentials in Mindanao,” he said, adding that Davao City is becoming the next big thing in tourism.
Starting this summer, AirAsia will fly from Davao to Cebu, twice daily; to Boracay, daily; to Palawan, thrice weekly ; and to Clark, four times weekly using Airbus A320s or jets which can accommodate up to 180 guests per flight.
“By connecting Davao to these four areas, we are initially connecting the city to our bigger network as we have over 220 destinations internationally. Soon, we may be parking more planes here. Manila is crowded that is why most of the airplane orders will have to be distributed into other main hubs, and Davao is considered,” he said.
Department of Tourism Regional Director Roberto Alabado III, for his part, said the launching of new flights is a welcome development.
“Air connectivity is crucial in tourism development. Accessibility has always been our fight in the tourism industry and we are glad that Air Asia is helping us,” Alabado said.
Comendador also shared launching new routes enables them to achieve this year’s load factor target at 90 percent on both domestic and international flights.
Last year, the low-cost carrier was hitting 85 to 90 percent in year-round load factor, surpassing its target at only 80 percent.
With this, the AirAsia group is moving forward into doubling its fleet by adding 200 more planes by 2020.
Bigger, modernized airports needed
Based on the global Airbus and Boeing orders, Comendador said, some 22,000 new planes will be ordered for the next 20 years, 40 percent of which will happen in Asia-Pacific area, where the Philippines belongs.
Recognizing this, airline players saw the need to build more airports and/or expand the existing ports.
Unless addressed, Philippine tourism will be left behind albeit the country’s diverse and abundant tourism destinations.
At present, several Philippine airports are undergoing modernization process, including the Davao International Airport.
The P40.57-billion project for Davao Airport will include an expansion of the passenger terminal building to 125,000 square meters (sqm) from 65,000 sqm, cargo terminal building expansion to 27,000 sqm from 13,000 sqm, apron area, construction of full parallel taxiways, and expansion of other key facilities.
The pre-qualification conference for the regional airports by the Public-Private Partnership Center is set on March 13, 9 a.m. at the Department of Transportation (DOTr) office in Columbia Tower, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.
On January 24, DOTr released a new invitation to pre-qualify and bid on the airport development, operations and maintenance for the Bacolod-Silay, Davao, Iloilo, Laguindingan and New Bohol PPP Project for interested companies.
“We are expanding. And what we are doing now is develop Clark and Davao as a hub,” Comendador said.
