After a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, AirAsia Philippines hosted its 7th Redstar Awards ceremony Wednesday to recognize the significant contributions of its travel agency partners throughout the Philippines.
“AirAsia Philippines is winning because of you, our travel agency partners, for keeping the travel and tourism industry alive,” said AirAsia Philippines CEO Ricky Isla. “We are winning because people believe in what we do here at AirAsia — providing the best service and travel experience to millions of our guests.”
Over 1,000 travel agencies, online travel agents, and service centers partner with AirAsia across the Philippines. In 2023, these partners accounted for nearly 50% of AirAsia’s total flight and ancillary revenue sales in the country.
“Small or big, their contributions were pivotal to AirAsia’s success,” Isla said. He thanked the partners for their support during the pandemic when they served as the airline’s “backbone” as it navigated the crisis.
Philippine Travel Agencies Association President Marigel Tankiang Manotok attended the event and reciprocated AirAsia’s appreciation.
“Cheers to AirAsia Philippines, a true champion of affordable travel!” said Manotok. “May your wings continue to spread and bring dynamism to the Philippine travel industry.”
As of May 2024, AirAsia operates 12 domestic and 13 international routes from Philippines hubs. The airline is the leading carrier for popular leisure destinations like Thailand, Boracay, Tagbilaran, Tacloban, Panglao and Cebu according to Isla.
He revealed plans for AirAsia to reopen its Clark hub in the second half of 2024, adding new domestic and international flights from the northern Manila airport. Isla said the airline is “banking on the strong support” of its travel agency partners to help promote Clark as a major hub.
The Redstar Awards recognize the airline’s top-performing sales partners through criteria like total passenger traffic, year-over-year growth and other performance metrics. Award categories include online travel agencies, travel agencies sorted by region, top agency overall and other honors.
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