Budget airline supports festival tourism influx

CEBU, Philippines — Budget airline AirAsia Philippines has committed to support the vigorous return to the streets of colorful Philippine festivals such as Cebu’s Sinulog, Kalibo’s Ati-atihan, and Iloilo’s Dinagyang with discounted fares and an exciting blowout this January 2024.

Festivals around the country are known tourism come-ons for both local and international visitors to the different destinations in the country.

In the same month last year, AirAsia Philippines registered a total of 580,000 guests who visited top festival destinations Cebu, Bohol, and Kalibo.

Meanwhile, in the first half of January 2024, the budget airline already carried 520,000 guests in these destinations leading to an expectation of a strong demand that supports the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) target of increasing tourist arrivals in the country.

“AirAsia Philippines would like to open 2024 in a positive and festive mood. The Philippines, composed of 82 provinces, offers an array of festivals, which are worth exploring. At AirAsia we know that this is more than just the usual get-together — it’s a celebration of culture! During these important milestones, our guests can always rely on AirAsia’s affordable, reliable, and safe air travel. We would like to be that airline that would make every Filipino festival happen,” said AirAsia Philippines Spokesperson and First Officer Steve Dailisan.

To entice more guests to visit their favorite Philippine festivals, Dailisan said AirAsia is offering an all-month-round discounted one-way base fare of PHP68 to PHP98 to all of its domestic destinations. Aside from that, guests who will book their flights via the Superapp or airsia.com until 12 February 2024 will get a chance to win vacation packages, free flights, hotel vouchers, and Airasia points with the AirAsia 2024 Blowout.

Dailisan added that these exciting deals along with AirAsia Philippines’ improved on-time performance (OTP) for January 2024 - averaging 93 percent for the past seven days will attract more guests to fly with the World’s Leading Low-Cost Airline.

AirAsia Philippines is hoping to fly more foreign guests from other ASEAN countries, especially with the scheduled merger of AirAsia X and AirAsia Philippines (and other AirAsia areas of operation).

The merger is expected to be completed in the upcoming months and is seen to consolidate all medium and long-haul flights, which could generate more opportunities for international visitors to explore the country as it will connect the Philippines with neighboring destinations.