Philippines AirAsia, Inc. is a

low-cost airline A low-cost carrier or low-cost airline (occasionally referred to as '' no-frills'', ''budget'' or '' discount carrier'' or ''airline'', and abbreviated as ''LCC'') is an airline that is operated with an especially high emphasis on minimizing op ...

based at

Ninoy Aquino International Airport Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA , ; fil, Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Ninoy Aquino or ''Pandaigdigang Paliparan ng Ninoy Aquino''; ), originally known and still commonly referred to as Manila International Airport (MIA), is the main ...

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the seat of government and one of three defined metropolitan areas in ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. The airline is the Philippine affiliate of

AirAsia Capital A Berhad, () operating as AirAsia (stylized as ''airasia'') is a Malaysian multinational low-cost airline headquartered near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the largest airline in Malaysia by fleet size and destinations. AirAsia operat ...

, a low-cost airline based in Malaysia. The airline started as a joint venture among three Filipino investors and AirAsia Investments Ltd. (later AirAsia Aviation Limited), a subsidiary of AirAsia Berhad. In 2015, both of the Filipino affiliates of AirAsia —

AirAsia Zest Zest Airways, Inc., operated as AirAsia Zest (formerly Asian Spirit and Zest Air), was a low-cost airline based at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay, Metro Manila in the Philippines. It operated scheduled domestic and international ...

and AirAsia Philippines were officially consolidated together to form a new brand and corporate identity as Philippines AirAsia.

History

Beginnings

Prior to the 2022 amendment of the Public Service Act of the Philippines which removes foreign ownership restrictions in airlines, the law only allowed a foreign direct investment of up to 40% in Philippine-registered companies. As such, AirAsia Group CEO

Tony Fernandes Anthony Francis Fernandes (born 30 April 1964) is a Malaysian entrepreneur. He is the founder of Tune Air Sdn. Bhd., which took over the first Malaysian budget airline, AirAsia. Fernandes turned AirAsia, a failing government-linked commer ...

entered into a 60-40 joint venture with Filipino investors Antonio O. Cojuangco, Jr., former owner of

Associated Broadcasting Company TV5 Network Inc., commonly known as TV5, is a Philippine media company based in Mandaluyong, with its alternate studios located in Novaliches, Quezon City. It is primarily involved in radio and television broadcasting, with subsidiaries and ...

and owner of Dream Satellite TV, Michael L. Romero, a real estate developer and port operator, and Marianne Hontiveros, a former music industry executive and TV host. The Filipino investors have a 60% stake in the airline, while the remaining 40% belongs to AirAsia Investments Ltd. (later AirAsia Aviation Limited) of Malaysia. AirAsia Philippines was formally launched on 16 December 2010. On 15 August 2011, AirAsia Philippines took delivery of its first brand-new

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...

aircraft. The airline planned to start operations by 2011 but was delayed due to the long duration of processing the new requirements instituted in 2008. On 7 February 2012, the airline received its

air operator certificate An air operator's certificate (AOC) is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes. This requires the operator to have personnel, assets, and system in plac ...

. The airline commenced operations on 28 March 2012 by launching flights from its base at

Clark International Airport Clark International Airport ( pam, Pangyatung Sulapawan ning Clark; fil, Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Clark; ), known as Diosdado Macapagal International Airport from 2003 to 2012, is an international airport covering portions of the cities of ...

Kalibo Kalibo, officially the Municipality of Kalibo ( Aklanon: ''Banwa it Kalibo''; Hiligaynon: ''Banwa sang Kalibo''; tgl, Bayan ng Kalibo), is a 1st class municipality and capital of the Province of Aklan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, ...

and

Davao City Davao City, officially the City of Davao ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Dabaw; ), is a first class highly urbanized city in the Davao Region, Philippines. The city has a total land area of , making it the largest city in the Philippines in terms of lan ...

. It partnered with Victory Liner, one of the largest provincial bus companies operating in the Philippines, to provide free shuttle service for inbound and outbound passengers of Clark International Airport. Within that year, in addition to its first two destinations, AirAsia Philippines launched flights to Puerto Princesa,

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

, and

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

Partnership with Zest Airways and consolidation

On 11 March 2013, an agreement was made between AirAsia Philippines to swap shares with Philippine-based airline Zest Airways. Zest Airways received a mix of $16 million cash and a 13% share in AirAsia Philippines, while AirAsia Philippines now owns 85% of Zest Airways, with 49% of its voting rights. The deal closed on 10 May 2013. Due to this agreement,

Alfredo Yao Alfredo M. Yao (born November 26, 1943) is a Filipino businessman who founded Zest-O Zest-O Corporation is a Philippine beverage company based in Caloocan. It was founded in 1980 as SEMEXCO Marketing Corporation by the businessman Alfredo ...

Zest-O Corporation Zest-O Corporation is a Philippine beverage company based in Caloocan. It was founded in 1980 as SEMEXCO Marketing Corporation by the businessman Alfredo M. Yao. History While touring Europe in 1979, Alfredo Yao learned about the Doypack pack ...

was added as an additional owner of the company. In 2015, both airlines merged to form Philippines AirAsia. The 2013 share swap agreement also gives AirAsia Philippines access to

, allowing further growth of its route network. In September 2013, the airline announced that it will move its operations to NAIA from Clark. The airline however restarted flights from Clark on 27 March 2017. On 30 July 2016, AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes appointed Capt. Dexter Comendador as the new CEO of the company. Comendador joined Philippines AirAsia in 2011 as director of Flight Operations and was promoted to chief operating officer in 2015 before his appointment. Comendador is also famous in the Philippine aviation community as one of the hero pilots of Philippine Airlines Flight 434 who was bombed by the terrorist

Ramzi Yousef Ramzi Ahmed Yousef ( ur, , translit=''Ramzī Ahmad Yūsuf''; born 20 May 1967 or 27 April 1968) is a Pakistani convicted terrorist who was one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the bombing of Philippine Airlines ...

in 1994. The

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

has adversely affected Philippines AirAsia's business. Plans for Philippines AirAsia to debut in the

Philippine Stock Exchange The Philippine Stock Exchange, Inc. ( fil, Pamilihang Sapi ng Pilipinas; ) is the national stock exchange of the Philippines. The exchange was created in 1992 from the merger of the Manila Stock Exchange and the Makati Stock Exchange. Includin ...

within 2020 was deferred in March 2020, with the airline management deciding to focus on expanding its domestic operations after a government ban on China and South Korea in response to the worsening health situation threatening 30% of the airlines' revenue.

Destinations

Fleet

, the Philippines AirAsia fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Sports teams

AirAsia Philippine Patriots The AirAsia Philippine Patriots (originally known as the Philippine Patriots) were a professional basketball team that played in the ASEAN Basketball League. It was the first team from the Philippines to play in the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) a ...

(

ASEAN Basketball League The ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) is a professional men's basketball league in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong/Macau, which includes six teams from Southeast Asian nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), one tea ...

, 2010–2012) * AirAsia Flying Spikers (

Philippine Super Liga The Philippine Super Liga (PSL; alternatively spelled as Philippine Superliga) was a non-professional corporate club women's volleyball league in the Philippines. It was first organized by SportsCore Event Management and Consultancy, Inc. an ...

, 2014)

References

External links

* {{Airlines of the Philippines Airlines of the Philippines Airlines established in 2010 AirAsia Companies based in Angeles City Low-cost carriers Philippine companies established in 2010