AirAsia Philippines hopes to return to its pre-pandemic operation levels as early as the last quarter of 2022, depending on local and international restrictions and protocols.
Ray Berja, the company’s CFO, said his group forecasts its domestic operations to go back to normal before the 2022 elections. International operations may normalize in the fourth quarter of next year.
“For domestic frequency, aligned again to the path of herd immunity, we hope to at least achieve 100 percent by April or May before the elections. For international, that would be, maybe, early 2023 or later part of 2022. But that one is very tough because that involves the restrictions of other countries and that will be out of our control,” he said during a press briefing.
Currently, AirAsia Philippines operates between 10 percent and 15 percent of its pre-Covid capacity domestically. Meanwhile, its international operations are limited to chartered flights.
To accommodate the expected rise in traffic during the holiday season, AirAsia is increasing its capacity in Cebu, Boracay, and Tagbilaran and other major domestic routes through December.
“Hopefully, we can hit around 20 percent of our pre-Covid capacity. Hopefully as well, that the load factor will increase to around 80 percent. That’s the way we see our quarter four numbers. Also, the cargo will be in much better and encouraging numbers for us this fourth quarter,” Berja said.