Yabut is seen talking to reporters of The Borneo Post during a recent interview here. Yabut says, AirAsia is constantly looking for ways to build the connectivity to Philippines which includes improving its connectivity with Malaysia, particularly East Malaysia.
KUCHING: AirAsia Bhd (AirAsia) is looking to establish direct flights between Kuching and Manila in the near future in a bid to increase connectivity between Malaysia and the Philippines.
This follows its Miri-Manila route which has seen a strong take-up rate since it was formed in December last year, reveals Apprentice Asia winner Jonathan Yabut.
Yabut is currently AirAsia’s chief of staff under a one-year contract with Malaysian business mogul Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, a position which was awarded to him for winning the hit reality TV show; The Apprentice Asia.
“The role that Tony (Fernandes) has given me is marketing. I’ve always been into marketing anyway, so I’m trying to leverage on my strengths,” Yabut said in a recent exclusive interview with The Borneo Post.
“A lot of the work which he has given me is to build up the crowd for AirAsia for the Philippines. The Philippines is the youngest member of the AirAsia family; it was only launched in 2012,” he added.
“So, we’re trying to build this network.”
One such way, he said, was to increase its connectivity with Malaysia, particularly East Malaysia.
Currently, AirAsia has routes connecting Kota Kinabalu to Manila as well as to Cebu in the Philippines.
Kuala Lumpur is also connected to Philippines via Manila and Cebu, Yabut said, adding that Kuching will hopefully join the map soon.
“Miri is not only the gateway to Sarawak but also to Brunei,” he explained.
“And us being low cost, there’s more options for travel between Sarawak and the Philippines.
“Logically speaking, it makes sense to build a capital city-to-capital city route. There’s business transactions between both, and cargo as well.
“Not only is Kuching one of the many destinations Filipinos come for tourism, but it also a good market for work for Filipinos.”
However, Yabut opined that Philippines is a very challenging market to penetrate as it is already heavily saturated. He referred to Cebu Air announcing the acquisition of Tiger Airways (Tigerair) Philippines for US$15 million as part of a strategic alliance forged with Singapore’s Tigerair for codeshare and interline arrangements.
This is second case of consolidation in less than a year after AirAsia bought 49 per cent of Zest Airways in March 2013.
“It is a scary thought because mergers and acquisitions are not uncommon. That’s how it usually is,” he explained.
“But we’re fighting hard because we believe it is an underserved market in the Asean region and Tony (Fernandes) has done so much for it.”
Yabut went on to highlight AirAsia’s efforts to connect all of its routes via Fly-Thru, a process of transferring from one flight to another without the hassle of going through immigration processing, and of having to collect baggage when you are taking two different flights to get to your final destination and stopping over at a transit station.
“We want that in all routes – it is only availble for selected routes now. Our dream by 2020, or 2018, is for all 380 destinations of AirAsia to be connected in this aspect.”