MANILA, Philippines — Other local airlines could also be in the running for the acquisition of boutique airline AirSWIFT from property giant Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) but budget carrier Cebu Pacific appears to be the frontrunner.
Mariana Zobel de Ayala, senior vice president and head of leasing and hospitality at ALI, said they are also entertaining other local airlines for the sale of AirSWIFT.
“So it’s not exclusive in the sense that we are entertaining several. But I guess what came out in the news is our discussions with the Gokongwei Group,” Zobel said.
“When we started this process, our objective really was like what would be the best customer experience, so we thought it would be best to cast a wide net. That’s how we started the process,” she said.
Asked about the other carriers with which the company is in discussion, she said: “There are only so many local airlines.”
However, ALI said the focus of current discussions is with Cebu Pacific.
“Right now, we are progressing with our talks with Cebu Pacific,” Zobel said.
The STAR has reached out to Philippine Airlines and AirAsia Philippines officials, but they have yet to respond as of press time.
Zobel said nothing has yet been finalized as to whether ALI would completely exit AirSWIFT or keep a minority stake, as the terms for the sale have not yet been confirmed.
“But I think the principle is really that our core competency is in developing land and land-related products, and so we hope to continue focusing on that and ensure that we can deliver the right experience by partnering with a group whose focus is aviation,” she said.
“As soon as we get to a place where we feel we’ve come to terms, we’ll announce,” Zobel said.
ALI senior vice president, chief finance officer and chief compliance officer Augusto Bengzon said what is on the table is for AirSWIFT to be operated by whoever ends up purchasing it.
“Clearly, why are we thinking of that? Because running an airline is their core competency, not ours,” Bengzon said.
“For our Lio Estate, we still own the airport there, and we would want them to continue, or whoever ends up purchasing AirSWIFT would need to fly to service our properties, our resorts in Palawan,” he said.
Bengzon said there may be something more definitive regarding the deal by next month.
The STAR earlier reported that the Gokongweis and the Zobels are in talks for Cebu Pacific’s acquisition of AirSWIFT from the Ayala Group’s property arm.
This was later confirmed by Cebu Pacific, which said it is currently engaged in exploratory talks with ALI.
On its end, ALI said it is exploring opportunities with Cebu Pacific to improve its offerings.
“We can confirm that we are in talks with Cebu Pacific, and really, we get a lot of questions as to why we approached Cebu Pacific about that. Our core competencies you know, are not in airlines and management of an airline and so we figured to be able to offer the best experience to our customers and also to be able to offer a meaningful career track to our employees, it would be ideal to partner with another group whose core competency is really in aviation,” Zobel said.