Sun.Star Cebu

New Cebu to Bangkok flight in July

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Malaysian low-fare airline AirAsia is set to connect Cebu and Thailand next month, although the flight details have yet to be revealed.

AirAsia Philippine­s CEO Dexter Comendador said Cebu’s connection­s to the rest of Southeast Asia will get a boost as the carrier, through its affiliate Thai AirAsia, will launch a direct flight from Cebu to Bangkok in July.

Thai AirAsia is a joint venture of AirAsia and Thailand’s Asia Aviation. It serves AirAsia’s domestic and internatio­nal flights from Bangkok and other cities in Thailand. Earlier this year, AirAsia Philippine­s announced it is connecting Cebu to the cities of China—Shenzhen, Hangzhou and Shanghai.

By 2019, Captain Comendador said, they are eyeing to mount flights between Cebu and Japan as well as Cebu and South Korea.

Shared opportunit­ies

“We already have (connection­s) from Cebu to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Taiwan. We are working on connecting Cebu to other countries in Southeast Asia with this new hub,” said Comendador, referring to the newly-inaugurate­d Terminal 2 of the Mactan Cebu Internatio­nal Airport.

“When AirAsia enters, it doesn’t only mean Philippine­s; other AirAsia (affiliates) will follow suit, similar to Davao-Kuala Lumpur,” he said.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) opened a thrice-weekly Cebu-Bangkok service starting Dec. 2, 2017.

In past interviews, Rachakorn Saksri, director of Thai Trade Center, said during her visit to Cebu that while the Philippine­s and Thailand are working closely to boost trade, both economies are also working on growing tourism opportunit­ies.

Although Thailand and the Philippine­s almost have the same tourism products, Saksri said another differenti­ating factor for Philippine tourism is its people. “Thai tourists come to the Philippine­s because of its people. You are friendly. It is more fun in the Philippine­s,” she said.

The Philippine­s and Thailand have resolved to revive a 23-year-old tourism cooperatio­n agreement. The agreement states, among others, that the two countries shall encourage their local travel agents to develop a joint promotiona­l program that would market both the Philippine­s and Thailand destinatio­ns in one tour package.

At least 11,783 tourists from Thailand were welcomed in Central Visayas last year, up by 38.59 percent from 8,502 arrivals in 2016. Cebu had a share of 9,951 arrivals from Thailand.

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