By Felipe V. Celino
ROXAS CITY, Capiz- AirAsia Philippines has started its Manila-Roxas City and vice-versa flight on Thursday, June 16
The maiden flight Z2 343, which departed from the NAIA Terminal 4 at 7:15 am, arrived at the Roxas City airport at 8:30 am carrying 180 guests including AirAsia chief executive officer Ricky Isla, AirAsia super app managing director Ray Berja, other airline executives, and members of the media.
The guests on the flight were greeted by a cultural dance at the arrival area. Capiz Gov. Esteban Evan Nonoy Contreras and Roxas City Mayor Ronnie Dadivas who was represented by City Councilor Paul Ivan Baticados led the delegation that welcomed the guests along with other regional tourism and trade industry officials and partners.
AirAsia is initially set to fly Roxas City three times a week or every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Roxas City accepts local and foreign tourists with just the vaccination card as the entry requirement.
“We are happy to have successfully launched our maiden flight in Roxas City. The pandemic has pushed back the opening but it also allowed us to focus on strengthening the viability of this route. Expect AirAsia to be driving foreign and local tourists to experience the best of Capiz. We are confident that this expansion will also help in stimulating commerce and growth in other sectors, such as Information Communication Technology(ICT) and trade”, Isla stressed.
Capiz, as the seafood capital of the Philippines, attracts local and foreign tourists because of its easy access to other key cities in Western Visayas including the majestic Islas de Gigante.
Roxas City is also becoming an ICT hub with a number of Business Processing Outsourcing(BPO) companies investing in the city.
AirAsia is one of the country’s top low-cost airlines. It flies to a total of 16 domestic and 15 international destinations as of April 2022. It was officially launched as the fourth Airline Operations Center(AOC) of the AirAsia group in 2012.
Other airlines operating in Capiz are Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific.
Meanwhile, Gov. Contreras is one of the passengers when AirAsia Z2 343 flight went back to Manila on the same day.
The outgoing governor of Capiz delivered his message before the flight back of Z2 343 airplane to Manila during the inaugural flight program held at the Roxas City airport parking area.
