分类： News

ILOILO CITY, February 23 (PIA) — Direct flight services from Iloilo to Xiamen, China will be launched via AirAsia Airlines by September 2016.

This was the special announcement of Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog during the Chinese New Year grand cultural show held Friday, Feb. 20 at the Iloilo Chinatown at Iznart Street here.

“AirAsia’s commitment is that starting next year, 2016, by September, they are going to launch the first Iloilo direct flights to Xiamen, China,” he announced.

He said that 80 percent of Chinese-Filipinos from Iloilo City are from Xiamen, China.

“Aside from that, AirAsia also committed to have direct flights from Iloilo to Incheon, South Korea by the last quarter of next year,” he said.

At present, the Iloilo International Airport caters to direct flights for two international destinations – Hong Kong and Singapore via Cebu Pacific Air.

There are three flights weekly for Hong Kong while two flights in a week are scheduled for Singapore.

SEPANG: AirAsia is selling 25% of its online travel portal joint-venture firm for US$86.3mil or RM306mil in cash, representing a hefty gain on disposal of about RM280mil, just after three years of starting this business with global online travel player, US-based Expedia Inc.

The stake is being sold to Expedia, which will now own 75% of the company, called AAE Travel Ltd, while AirAsia will retain 25%.
继续阅读AirAsia cashes in on travel portal

When Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes bought the struggling AirAsia Bhd. in 2001, his goal was to build a budget airline group that could take advantage of the explosive travel growth he saw coming in the region.

To do that, Mr. Fernandes made AirAsia into the McDonald’s of the aviation industry, bridging Asia’s checkerboard of sovereign states and aviation rules by rolling out franchise-like joint ventures under the AirAsia brand, in countries from Thailand and the Philippines to India.

In roughly a decade, that model turned AirAsia into a group encompassing nine carriers, of which the three listed companies had $2.3 billion in revenue in 2013. While the number of annual airline seats in the Asia-Pacific region has doubled to 1.7 billion during the past decade, the number of seats available on budget airlines increased tenfold to 400 million, according to the CAPA-Centre for Aviation.

But as the AirAsia group grapples with its biggest crisis yet—the aftermath of the December crash of a plane operated by its Indonesian affiliate—that franchise model and the growth on which it was premised could be under strain.
继续阅读AirAsia’s Growth Model Under Strain

Malindo Air has joined three other carriers in connecting Kuala Lumpur (KUL) in Malaysia with Kathmandu (KTM) in Nepal. On 6 February the LCC, part-owned by Indonesia’s Lion Air, and recently profiled on anna.aero, began serving the route with daily flights using its 737-900s. The 3,264-kilometre route is already served by Malaysia Airlines (twice-daily flights), AirAsia X (daily flights) and Nepal Airlines (six weekly flights). Nepal becomes the sixth country to be served by Malindo Air. From its Kuala Lumpur base the carrier already operates international flights to Bangladesh, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.

No, you pack your bags, Airbnb: a city task force in West Hollywood has recommended that the city do what Silver Lakers and Venetians before it have tried and failed to do and outright ban short-term vacation rentals. WeHo’s Shared Economy Task Force (a real thing) has suggested that the city outlaw all short-term rentals (rooms rented out for less than 30 days), reports Wehoville; short-term renting is already not allowed in residential areas, just as it’s against the rules in most of Los Angeles, but there are hundreds of Airbnb listings for WeHo on the site, which is why the task force wants to take the city’s stance up a notch. The task force also wants to ask short-term rentals sites to explicitly note in their listings that such rentals are banned in West Hollywood.

Some residents, though, say there should be different rules for homeowners and apartment building owners; the latter have been accused of keeping units empty so they can rent them out on Airbnb for higher prices with greater turnover (renters are generally violating rental agreements when they put their spaces up for short-term rent). Homeowners insist the city doesn’t need to ban their short-term rentals, regardless of whether they’re already outlawed anyway.