Airasia expands cargo business

AS commercial flights have been limited due to the potential spread of Covid-19’s Delta variant, budget carrier Airasia is strengthening its cargo business with its expansion in Mindanao.

Ricardo Isla, president of Airasia Philippines, said the group has started operating Teleport, the cargo unit of Airasia, in General Santos, and will soon start commercial operations in Zamboanga.

“Our cargo business is approximately 10 percent of our total top line. There are a lot of good opportunities to expand that,” he said in a virtual press briefing on Wednesday.

Teleport operations, Isla noted, involves not only the delivery of goods via plane. It also involves investments in facilities and machineries that help the company serve the needs of its clients.

“It includes warehousing, machines for X-rays, logistics operations, and manpower on ground. We’re learning from all our previous destinations like Cebu, Davao, Palawan, CDO. We would like to duplicate that into our newly-opened Teleport General Santos, and soon-to-open Zamboanga,” he added.

Teleport Zamboanga will open within the month.

“We’re boosting our Teleport cargo business because we need to continue our progress with regards to transfer of goods to the city,” Isla said.

The budget carrier is reducing its flight operations by “almost 40 percent” in the next two weeks due to the impending imposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the National Capital Region (NCR) and its adjacent provinces.