Airasia to beef up Sabah operations
SABAH, Malaysia—budget carrier Airasia Philippines plans to beef up its Manila-kota Kinabalu operations here by the fourth quarter.
In a press conference Tuesday evening, Airasia Philippines CEO Ricky Isla said the airline will double the capacity of its Manila-kota Kinabalu flight from twice weekly to four times per week as early as October.
“Our [current] capacity is approximately between 1,800 to 1,900 using our Airbus 320. To date, you can just compute our load factor has improved significantly to 70 percent and we expect to increase capacity by the fourth quarter going back to pre pandemic levels,” he said.
Airasia is boosting its operations to Sabah given the huge demand for the destination.
“There’s a lot of Filipinos whose routes are coming from the Sabah side. That is the most important. They already have families. They have already expanded their family and relatives. Secondly, I think is tourism,” Isla said.
Isla said the group is optimistic given the revenge travel phenomenon, which is expected to peak by the fourth quarter.
Airasia Philippines has also reinforced its partnership with the Sabah Tourism Board (STB) to market the Manila-kota Kinabalu flights to both Filipinos and Malaysians.
“In line with the transition to an endemic phase, I believe that this resumption of international flights comes at the right time for both tourists and locals in Sabah, who have been excitedly anticipating and planning their travels” said Datuk Jafry Ariffin, Sabah Minister of Tourism Culture and Environment.