The Philippine unit of Southeast Asia’s largest budget airline said Friday it will resume operations in Clark International Airport in Pampanga in March this year.
Philippines Air Asia will recommence flights from Clark with three weekly flights to Kalibo (Boracay) effective March 27.
“AirAsia has constantly dedicated itself to make air travel more affordable, convenient and accessible to all and we are reaffirming this commitment with our newest Clark-Kalibo route,” PAA chief executive Dexter Comendador said.
“We are thrilled to provide the much needed connectivity at affordable fares for travellers from Central and Northern Luzon,” he said.
AirAsia launched commercial flights at Clark in 2012 before transferring its hub to Metro Manila following a strategic partnership with a local carrier in 2013.
AirAsia has since been operating on a much larger scale from Metro Manila and expanded its domestic and international networks with flights from hubs in Cebu and Kalibo.
The airline said it would offer promo fares to Boracay from as low P699, all in and available until Febr. 5. The travel period is between March 27 to Nov. 30, 2017.
PAA operates a fleet of 14 aircraft with domestic and international flights out of hubs in Manila, Cebu and Kalibo.
The airline operates several flights to/from Manila, Davao, Cebu, Kalibo (Boracay), Tacloban, Tagbilaran(Bohol), Puerto Princesa (Palawan) and Clark in the Philippines with international flights to/from Shanghai, Taipei, Incheon (Seoul), Hong Kong, Macau, Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu and Singapore.
The budget airline earlier reported a net loss of P1.2 billion in July to September, down by 12 percent from the P1.4-billion loss it reported in the same period in 2015.
Revenues increased 24 percent to P2.57 billion in the third quarter of 2016 from P2.07 billion in the same period in 2015.
Passengers carried by AirAsia Philippines increased 8 percent to 976,765 last year from 901,957 in 2015, while load factor went down by 1 percentage point to 83 percent from 84 percent.
Malaysia’s Air Asia, through AA International, owns 40 percent of Philippines’ Air Asia Inc., while Filipino businessmen Marriane Hontiveros, Michael Romero, Antonio Cojuangco and Alfredo Yao hold the balance of 60 percent.
