Capital A to expand into the Philippine market with new logistics business

Capital A, the holding company of airline AirAsia, has announced the potential creation of more jobs for Filipinos as part of AirAsia Philippines’ short and long- term plans, it said in a statement. 

As part of its post-pandemic recovery plans, AirAsia is planning some major changes across its Philippine operations. In addition to a stronger emphasis on facilitating local e-commerce and establishing engineering operations in the Philippines, the airline also intends to expand its Philippine fleet to sustain route expansion both domestically and internationally.

“I am excited to put in more investments in the Philippines. We have a great logistics business coming- Teleport Philippines, which we think will be great for e-commerce providers in the Philippines to sell their goods all over. We would also like to bring in ADE, which is a really fantastic engineering company” said Tan Sri Tony Fernandes, chief executive officer of Capital A.

Asia Digital Engineering (ADE) is the engineering division of Capital A and it provides heavy maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services for the group’s commercial aircraft.

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“Leisure, migration workforce, and SME travel currently comprise pent-up demand for air travel. 80% of AirAsia’s South-East Asia traffic consists of shorter trips and low-cost travel. With this, we’d like to further connect the Philippines to other ASEAN destinations,” said Fernandes, chief executive officer of Capital A.

To facilitate this, recruitment will take precedence in the next few months. An additional 1,000 employees are expected to be hired to support AirAsia Philippines’ expansion in the next three years. In addition to this, 6,000 jobs are expected to benefit from the introduction of Capital A’s ride hailing business in the Philippines.

“My priorities were to survive, bring back people, and recruit more people. Our biggest asset actually is people. People are smart here, people are hardworking, and they have a wonderful personality. Hence for us, we will grow all four lines of Capital A in the Philippines,” added Fernandes, citing the company’s reasoning behind their development plans in the Philippines.

The news comes just as AirAsia Philippines launched a new in-flight campaign "Totally local" in May as the brand looks to deepen its ties within the SME community in the Philippines, as well as to promote the country's cultural heritage and creativity of local entrepreneurs.

This comes as AirAsia Philippines’ CEO Ricky Isla expressed the need for a holistic approach to reviving the tourism and aviation industries at the recent Go Negosyo Tourism Summit. “At AirAsia, we remain dedicated to innovating our services to meet our guests’ evolving needs and supporting the growth of tourism-related businesses. With many destinations promoting eco-tourism and cultural tourism, we recognise the growing trend towards sustainable and responsible tourism in the region,” he said.

The campaign features several Filipino homegrown brands such as Tala by Kyla, Team Manila Lifestyle, Boho Manila, Wodd Ph, and Ibarra Manila, according to the release. These products will be available in flight for travellers to purchase, giving these brands a larger stage to advertise its products.

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