Asia's biggest budget airline to form joint venture with Cojuangco group

[sharkey360]

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Asia's biggest budget airline to form joint venture with Cojuangco group

Southeast Asia's biggest budget carrier AirAsia plans to launch a joint venture airline operation in the Philippines in 2011, an official involved in the negotiations said on Wednesday.

'The partnership deal is with a consortium of Philippine business leaders including Antonio Cojuangco,' the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The official said AirAsia would probably take a 40% stake in the new company, the maximum allowed under Philippine rules, and that the expansion plan had been in the pipeline for a few years.

'We will make it happen as fast as we can. Definitely we are looking at next year for the take off of the domestic and overseas routes,' said the official.

AirAsia in a statement Wednesday confirmed it had been 'exploring the feasibility' of setting up a joint venture in the Philippines.

Cojuangco is President Aquino's cousin. He was the former chair of Philippine Airlines, Asia's oldest airline, when it was privatized decades ago.

He used to be the chair of phone giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT). His last major venture was ABC Broadcasting Corp, also known as TV5. His group and a Malaysian partner sold their stakes in the broadcasting firm to the media arm of PLDT in 2009.

AirAsia is headquartered in Malaysia.

Competition
The Kuala Lumpur-based airline has set up similar joint ventures in Thailand and Indonesia and has previously announced plans to set up a unit in Vietnam.

The budget airline industry, a relatively young industry in Asia, has been thriving in the past years and has remained unscathed despite the recent global economic slowdown.

Most Philippine airlines are expanding their routes to include regional destinations, which are no more than 4 hour-long flight. They are taking advantage of rising regional travel demand.

Gokongwei-led Cebu Pacific Air has been increasing its fleet of Airbus and ATR aircrafts to meet rising demand among Filipino travelers, most were used to other means of transportation like buses and ferries.

Philippine Airlines, a legacy carrier, has also established a no-frills airline called AirPhil Express. Recently, AirPhil launched its maiden regional flight to Singapore.

Meantime, homegrown Southeast Asian Airlines, or SEAir, and Tiger Airways, the budget arm of Singapore Airlines, have recently entered into a marketing agreement to co-sell air tickets.

Open skies
Since 2005, AirAsia has been operating flights to Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu from Clark in Pampanga.

AirAsia was one of the first airlines that started operations at the Clark airport long before OFWs from north Luzon, Korean weekend golfers, and BPO executives transformed the once-sleepy lahar-covered former US military air base into a bustling transport hub in central Luzon.

The airline's CEO Tony Fernandes, who was recently named by Forbes as Asia's businessman of the year, had been wanting to expand its routes in the Philippines but regulatory restrictions, among others, hampered these plans.

At the time that aviation regulation in the Philippines favored local airlines--resulting in restrictive 3-month long provisional license to airlines operating at Clark--AirAsia mulled leaving the Philippines. Eventually, it stayed on since airline executives wanted to ensure that AirAsia's operations covered the entire Asia Pacific region.

AirAsia stands to benefit from the pocket pen skies policy that President Aquino had said his administration will adopt by yearend. Open skies involves relaxing the regulatory hurdles that airlines face in mounting new or additional flights to a destination.

Clark has been identified by tourism officials as one of the select areas in the country where pocket open skies will be implemented as part of efforts to spur tourism arrivals to the country.

Asia's biggest budget airline to form joint venture with Cojuangco group | ABS-CBN News | Latest Philippine Headlines, Breaking News, Video, Analysis, Features

[ohohoy]

nice ni TS kay msaka saka ang economy sa pinas kung mdayon ni..

[samamar21]

welcome! competition is good!

[Ubejamming!]

yehey.. mo barato jud ang mga ticket prices ae kae nana sae lain competition.

[KE-25]

Interesting .... the airline business is in !

[moz_k2]

mao mani nga company nga naa similarity sa Virgin na logo






nindot ni aron mas pabaratohay na ug ticket

[Dax101106]

Mo barato nah ang plain ticket ani... Mag lumba nah sila ug paubsanay sa price ug promo...

[knickerbocker888]

the owner of Air Asia is Tony Fernandes, business friend of Ramon Ang (President and CEO of San Miguel Corporation- Cojuangco's company).. Tony Fernandes is also the owner of Team Lotus who participates and member in Formula 1 racing. Anyway, mas maayo ni kay mosamot gyud kabarato ang airfares, mas madani na sakay ug eroplano mga tawo considering na barato na.. bagsak ang shipping business ani, no wonder gibaligya na sa Aboitiz family ang ila shipping business to Negros Navigation..

[godwhacker]

Maayo ni kay ang plite unya ini ta bayntsinge nalang.

[BIGDANE]

mas maayo ni dah...pohon di na gyud intawon mahal kaayo ang ticket..