By Wynzyleen L. Lee / Special to the BusinessMirror
PRIVATELY owned commercial aviation company AirTrav Corp. is spending $6 million (P320 million) to further expand its recently introduced scheduled seaplane services out of Manila’s docks.
Jacob S. Cusi, the company’s president, led Wednesday’s launch of AirTrav’s seaplane services from Manila to Puerto Galera and Clark. The frequency of the two flights is daily, except Tuesday, and use a single Cessna Grand Caravan 208.
“The market is very good now that tourism is booming for the Philippines—it’s very high. In Clark commerce is very good. We have a lot of tourists coming in from China, South Korea and all over the world. It’s increasing every year,” he said.
Cusi said the company plans to acquire two more of the Cessna Grand Caravan 208 planes this year.
“We have two coming in by the end of the year, and a brand-new plane’s average cost is about $3 million. So we will have three in total this year. We are looking at expanding to the Visayas in the meantime,” he added.
Cusi hopes to attract at least 500 passengers for the remainder of the year. The Manila-Clark service is priced at P4,500, while the Manila-Puerto Galera service is priced at P6,000.
“That’s still the start. Hopefully, we could still expand by next year for further destinations down south. Hopefully, also in Mindanao. Hopefully, by next year,” he said, adding that return on investment, based the company’s study, is at “three to five years.”
AirTrav tapped Pioneer Insurance and Surety Corp. to insure passengers aboard their plane for up to P100,000 per plane ride.
The company also offers air charter services on top of scheduled flights.
With Lorenz S. Marasigan