We had been flying at above thirty thousand feet for about half an hour when a flight attendant on the AirAsia Davao-Manila flight started speaking over the public-address system. “Ladies and gentlemen, because we are celebrating a momentous occasion, we have prepared a short program for you.” The short program she talked about consisted of a dance performance by two pretty flight attendants who twirled to the tune of “Señorita” and a trivia contest that awarded six lucky winners with a round-trip domestic ticket.
AirAsia's In-flight Celebration of 600 Million Passengers
600 Million Passengers Flown
It was just like yesterday when AirAsia came into the awareness of the traveling public. I could still remember that my very first airplane ride back in 2008 was with AirAsia. It was that trip with my brother to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that kickstarted my whole wanderlust. Who would have thought that my then wide-eyed twenty-something self would become the travel writer I am today?
Upon learning that we were aboard a flight celebrating the 600-million-passenger milestone of AirAsia, the company’s slogan of “Now everyone can fly” really rang true to me. I was one of the six hundred million travelers that AirAsia had given a chance to fly and see the world at a very affordable airfare. Simply put, my journey as a traveler started when my brother saw a promo from AirAsia and decided on the spot to book us flight tickets more than ten years ago.
More than Just Numbers: Positive Tourism and Employment Impact
“We’d like to thank each one of our six hundred million guests for choosing AirAsia. Your support is what motivates our two thousand one hundred AirAsia Philippines employees to come to work each day,” AirAsia Philippines CEO Ricky Isla said.
“This milestone is not just about the numbers. It’s about celebrating the positive tourism and employment impact on our country’s economy. We look forward to further providing Filipinos with the best of service and connectivity across the Philippines and ASEAN,” Isla added.
After starting out operating under the mother company AirAsia, AirAsia Philippines was established in 2010 and had since flown more than thirty million passengers to thirty destinations on fifty-two unique routes. In 2018, AirAsia Philippines introduced additional destinations: Cagayan de Oro, Bangkok, Bali, Shenzhen, and Kaohsiung. That year, AirAsia Philippines expanded with more routes, such as Osaka, Bacolod, Chengdu, Hangzhou, and Kunming.
By the looks of AirAsia and AirAsia Philippines’ rapid expansion, it would just be a matter of time before the giant budget airline celebrated its one-billion-passenger milestone—and I hoped I would be on board for another next in-flight celebration.
*Photo credit: Main photo from Philippine Flight Network.
