AirAsia sees profitable Philippines operations this year

MANILA, Philippines — The AirAsia Group, Asia’s largest low-cost airline, expects its carrier in the Philippines, as well as those in other Southeast Asian countries, to be profitable this year.

“We are confident that all ASEAN AOCs (air operator’s certificate) will be profitable in 2019. We have already witnessed the strong load trend since the start of 2019,” AirAsia Group Bhd deputy group chief executive officer Bo Lingam said.

AirAsia Group Bhd refers to the consolidated groups of Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippine units.

Despite the soaring fuel costs last year, Lingam said the group still managed to add significant capacity in order to set up for a dominant position in this year.

“For this year, we are confident that Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines will make up for fuel cost hike in fiscal year 2018, while Malaysia continues to remain a strong profit generator,” Lingam said.

For full year 2018, AirAsia said the consolidated group saw both revenue and profit after tax increasing by nine percent year-on-year despite much higher fuel cost, weaker ASEAN currencies, closure of Boracay and the prolonged chain of natural disasters in Indonesia.

Due to the capacity expansion, the group said it managed to further grow its domestic market share in the Philippines to 20 percent in the fourth quarter, up four percentage points from the previous quarter.

The AirAsia Group is the leading and largest low-cost carrier in Asia, servicing the most extensive network of over 135 destinations across all ASEAN countries, Asia, India, Australia, China, Middle East and Hawaii in US.

In the Philippines, AirAsia has a current fleet of 21 Airbus A320s, from only two aircraft in 2012 when the airline began its commercial operation in Clark, Pampanga.

AirAsia Philippines is a joint venture among Filipino investors Antonio Cojuangco, former Ambassador Alfredo Yao, Michael Romero, Marianne Hontiveros and Malaysia’s AirAsia Group Bhd.