Friday, July 18, 2008 Local carrier buys more aircraft pending merger with another
EVEN though its merger with Southeast Asian Airlines (SEAIR) is yet to be finalized, Asian Spirit continues to buy new aircraft for new routes.
Asian Spirit is expecting four wide-body Airbuses next month and at least five propeller planes in the next seven months. The cost of the new aircraft is about P6 billion.
The planes are purchased by the leasing company that Asian Spirit put up. One or two of the new planes would be wholly-owned while the others will be placed under a leasing arrangement.
Asian Spirit, which AYM Holdings Group acquired more than four months ago from the Airline Employees Cooperative (AEC), foresees an increase in the number of passengers who would take advantage of the “efficiency” of the airline’s new planes.
Asian Spirit president and chief executive officer Ambassador Alfredo Yao, also president of AYM Holdings Group, earlier announced that AYM Holdings is allotting P45 billion for the re-fleeting and expansion program of the airline.
“That (merger plan) is still hanging in the air. We made our offer (to SEAIR) but they have not yet come back to us. In the meantime, the offer is there and we are busy with Asian Spirit,” said Ambassador Donald Dee, the airline company’s
chairman.
Dee, also chairman and founder of Universal Access to Competitiveness and Trade (U-ACT), was in Cebu yesterday as speaker in the institutionalization of multi-stakeholder (I-must) consultation program on trade police and negotiations at Parklane International Hotel.
Dee noted that other airline companies, like Philippine Airlines (PAL), are also investing on smaller planes because of high fuel costs. Small aircraft can also service missionary routes or small destinations where airports have short runways and minimal facilities.
For this, Dee said Asian Spirit “would also like to come (into new routes).” Asian Spirit presently flies to at least 12 local and international destinations, including Incheon, Korea; Sandakan, Malaysia; and Macau.
With new planes, it plans to fly to Palawan, Sulu and Zamboanga, among others, without waiting for the result of the merger negotiation with SEAIR.
Apart from new routes, it is also looking at establishing more hubs, like Cagayan de Oro for Mindanao, apart from existing centers in Manila and Cebu.
“We are heavy on Manila to Caticlan route. Now, we are looking at the
Mindanao hub seriously (since) the main domestic line includes Cebu-Davao,
Davao-Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos and Zamboanga,” said Dee.
He said establishing a hub in Mindanao is one way of bringing economic development to the area. (NRC)
