Amidst the ongoing pandemic which has greatly affected the airline industry in South East Asia, the AirAsia group remains committed in transitioning to the Airbus A321neo and A320neo. With 349 A321neo and 13 A320neo orders, these will be distributed amongst all AirAsia subsidiaries. As such, AirAsia Philippines may still receive Airbus A321neo jets after all, and we are excited!
The only question is when? In fact, AirAsia group CEO Tony Fernandes added that an unknown number of A320neo-family aircraft are set to arrive by the end of 2022 which will replace all the old airplanes across all subsidiary groups which includes the Philippines.
Whatever it is though, the AirAsia group boss remains committed to take-in all those aircraft in which the delivery was stalled due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic.
AirAsia Philippines was contemplating on acquiring the A321neos in 2019
In November 2019 during the delivery of AirAsia Berhad’s very first A321neo, AirAsia Philippines CEO Ricky Isla said, “AirAsia Philippines is still concretizing plans to purchase an A321neo. While we continue to achieve our operational goals with our existing twenty-four A320s, investing in newer additional aircraft will be advantageous for any airline in a slot-constrained environment,” AirAsia Philippines is still concretizing plans to purchase an A321neo. While we continue to achieve our operational goals with our existing twenty-four A320s, investing in newer additional aircraft will be advantageous for any airline in a slot-constrained environment,” as reported by Ch-Aviation.
However, if you can remember, this was mentioned in a time when the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila was facing slotting problems due to the growth of the aviation industry in the Philippines. The only solution to be able to increase capacity without asking additional slots is to switch to new aircraft. AirAsia Philippines currently operates 22 Airbus A320-200.
This covid-19 pandemic has greatly affected AirAsia Philippines where the airline was forced to suspend operations in 2020 due to the lockdowns. However, despite the re-opening of air travel within the Philippines, domestic travel continues to suffer a blow due to surges in covid-19 cases, inconsistent domestic travel requirements by LGUs, and lack of government support for the industry.
AirAsia Philippines’ recovery however is looking good
Tony Fernandes remains optimistic on AirAsia Philippines’ recovery. During a CAPA interview, Tony said, “Well, we kind of closed Japan. I mean that just wasn’t going to work with two planes, which is a shame, because I think we could have done a really good job in Japan. We’re virtually out of India, and I’m just going to be focusing on Southeast Asia. We’ve got a Filipino operation, that’s probably looking better than it was.”
AirAsia Philippines has actively pushing for more leisure travels. Aside from ensuring the safety of passengers, AirAsia has been tying up with tourism associations and groups around the Philippines to promote tourism in every destination they fly to. They have also expanded product offerings to travel packages and even an online shop for travel needs.
So if this happens, when will AirAsia Philippines begin acquiring the A321neo?
A look on AirAsia Philippines’ fleet will show that their fleet of Airbus A320-200 has an average age of 13 years. Most of their aircraft were previously used by AirAsia Berhad and other AirAsia subsidiaries before being handed to the Philippines subsidiary. Two of their jets, RP-C3227 and RP-C3228, came from other airlines which was Philippine Airlines. RP-C8950 however was received brand new from Airbus.
That being said, it can really be concluded that there is a huge possibility that some of those 349 AirAsia group A321neos may go to the Philippines. The question now is when. Currently, only 3 aircraft out of the 22 remain active due to the covid-19 situation in the Philippines.
However, everyone remains hopeful that the air travel demand in the Philippines will return to pre-pandemic levels, and would even surpass. We just hope that the Philippines’ vaccination program speeds up and that the Philippine government will further support the local travel and tourism industry. Things still remain unclear as the priority of AirAsia Philippines is to return to normal operations the soonest.
AirAsia Berhad remains committed to their orders
Tony Fernandes said that AirAsia is focused on taking “every single great plane, the A321”. Discussions with the manufacturer “have been great”, as what Tony Fernandes has describes. So hopefully, there would be no changes on that order. Hopefully.
Well, we just can’t wait to finally see AirAsia Philippines flying brand new aircraft in the near future! The A321neo will not only allow them to fly more passengers without having to add slots, but this would allow AirAsia Philippines to fly farther and to spend less on fuel due to the aircraft’s efficiency.
