More Filipinos do want to come back home amid the pandemic around the world. Being stranded in other countries, these Filipino seafarers and workers are longing to see their family members and loved ones. Filipinos from Indonesia, China, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia simply can’t wait to be back again. Good thing AirAsia Philippines answered the call to mount more repatriation flights within Asia to take home these fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, husbands, and wives.
Repatriation flight from Indonesia to Manila
Last Tuesday, 10 August 2021, AirAsia flew for the very first time to the Indonesian province of Riau to fetch 39 Filipino seafarers from Hang Nadim Airport, Batam, Indonesia. They safely returned to Manila at around 10:00 pm via the return flight Z2 8283.
Batam-Manila repatriation flights will be mounted on a per request basis from partner manning agencies. AirAsia Philippines also works with private companies to ferry home employees who are stranded abroad.
Repatriation flight from Sri Lanka to Manila
AirAsia flight Z2 8160 from Matalla, Sri Lanka arrived last week, on 5 August 2021 carrying around 100 Filipino seafarers. While commercial flights are limited due to international border restrictions, AirAsia will continue to fly from Sri Lanka to Manila every Thursday, as chartered operations.
AirAsia regularly does not have flights between Manila and Sri Lanka.
Repatriation flights from Malaysia and China
AirAsia has also partnered with shipping and manning agencies to mount chartered flights to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia every Saturday to service OFWs, who are also mostly seafarers. They also have weekly flights to Canton (Guangzhou) China to fly Chinese residents.
This is not the first year that AirAsia Philippines has mounted repatriation flights. Since 2020, AirAsia has mounted 600 chartered repatriation and sweeper flights from Palau, India, Indonesia, and Myanmar. They have flown around 50,000 OFWs back to the Philippines.
“AirAsia Philippines has always been a staunch partner of the government and the private sector in ensuring the safe return of our OFWs. We are happy to be there for our seafarers who need to change ships and schedules and be home with their families in these very challenging times.
“These chartered repatriation flights go both ways, allowing us to realize other revenue streams such as cargo, while being of service to our Kababayans.”
Steve Dailisan, AirAsia Philippines Spokesperson
