AirAsia Philippines was planning to launch Manila – Nagoya Chubu on October 29, 2024. The airline, however, decided not to go ahead with the new route.
First announced less than three months ago, at the end of July 2024, AirAsia Philippines was selling tickets for three weekly flights intended to be operated each Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday using 180-seater Airbus A320-200 aircraft.
The route, which was launched with AirAsia Philippines CEO Ricky Isla saying that “Japan is one of the strongest regional markets for AirAsia Philippines,” was set to become the airline’s third to Japan following Tokyo Narita and Osaka Kansai. The Manila-based low-cost will continue to operate flights to the former 11 times a week alongside daily flights to the latter.
Flights between Nagoya and Manila will continue to be offered by Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, and Jetstar Japan. Cebu Pacific increased the route from five weekly to daily at the beginning of this month. From December 17, it plans to upgauge three weekly flights from the current A321neo to the A330-900. With that, Cebu Pacific will add more capacity on the route (271 seats per upgauged flight, three times a week) than AirAsia Philippines was intending to offer.
