More AirAsia Philippines’ destinations have reopened their borders for tourist travelers as the government continues to ease restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals.
Aside from Caticlan (Boracay), Bohol and Cebu, leisure travelers may now also fly to Puerto Princesa, Iloilo Province, Bacolod, Davao and Tacloban to enjoy their much missed getaways. These leisure destinations now only require vaccination cards in lieu of a COVID-19 test or a medical certificate.
This recent development comes as active COVID-19 cases continue to decline coupled with the ongoing efforts of inoculating more and more Filipinos in time for the holiday season.
AirAsia Philippines Spokesperson Steve Dailisan said, “Reopening of leisure travel for most parts of the country signals recovery for the tourism industry. AirAsia is definitely embracing all these developments to finally come back stronger, help more local economies thrive and recover post pandemic. The easing of restrictions provides a welcome boost to end the year on an encouraging note.”
“By this time we expect our guests to have imbibed the culture of safety as we have significantly adapted to the new normal in air travel. It is important that we continue to have that shared commitment of traveling responsibly.”
AirAsia logged a 50% increase in seats sold for October. Load factor for the same month also increased by 76% with Boracay, Cebu, Tacloban, Bohol and Iloilo as most preferred destinations.
The spike in forward bookings is also seen to increase further with the recent decision of the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) to fully subsidize the RT-PCR test for qualified local tourists. DOT’s marketing arm Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) will shoulder the full cost of the RT-PCR at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC).
“Rebuilding confidence among our guests also entails our commitment to fly them on schedule with our guaranteed flights. As the air space gets busier, we are happy to share that last month our on-time performance logged at 91%. We intend to improve this further towards the holidays. Of course, our guests can also expect even more affordable deals on flights and hotels to celebrate the reopening of more destinations for leisure,” Dailisan added.
AirAsia has recently been awarded as Asia’s Leading Low-Cost Airline 2021 and Asia’s Low-Cost Airline Cabin Crew 2021 at the 28th World Travel Awards, the Business Innovation Award at the 2021 World Airline Awards from the aviation experts at Flightglobal, Best Low-Cost Airline in the world and in Asia for the 12th consecutive year by international airport and airline review and ranking site Skytrax.