AirAsia Philippines

AirAsia Philippines, Newly licensed AirAsia Inc. (Philippines) will lease 14-16 Airbus 320 planes to service domestic and international routes within 1.5 to 4 hours flight from its Clark, Pampanga hub in the next half decade.

The airline on Wednesday received its commercial air carrier certificate (AOC) from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) in the latter’s Manila office.

In March, last year, AirAsia Inc. registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to engage primarily in the business of air transportation in the Philippines and abroad for passenger and cargo.

AirAsia Inc. is a 60-40 joint venture between Filipino investors Antonio O. Cojuangco, Michael L. Romero and Marianne B. Hontiveros with Malaysia’s AirAsia International Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of AirAsia Berhad.

The latter won the best low cost airline award for three consecutive years from Skytrax, the world’s largest airline and airport review site.

Hot Air Balloon Festival

Hot Air Balloon Festival, The yearly colorful, head-raising Clark Hot Air Balloon Fiesta kicked off yesterday at the aviation field here with over 100,000 tourists watching til Sunday.

The organizers of the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta (PIHABF) are expecting a significant increase in the number of spectators and balloons participating in the 17th Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.

Clark Development Corporation (CDC) Tourism and Promotions head Noemi Garcia said at least nine countries are expected to participate in this year’s event.

Garcia said more balloons from a larger number of countries are expected to participate as compared to last year. She said additional exhibitions and more varied aerial demonstrations will highlight the festivity.

For the past 16 years, PIHABF has been an extremely successful event that attracts thousands of spectators both local and international. Aside from the display of a plethora of multi-colored hot air balloons, the festival also features a number of expedition events such as skydiving, flag jumps, micro-light aircraft and rocketry demonstrations, small plane fly-bys and fly-ins, remote-control airplane and helicopter flying exhibitions, freestyle aerobatics, precision maneuvers, light airplane balloon bursting, ultra-light flying formation and bomb dropping, kite-making and choreographed kite-flying, hi-start launch gliding, pylon racing, banner towing, aero-modeling symposium and races between ultra lights and motorcycles.