Zest Air opens Singapore

But suspends Clark-Hong Kong flights starting Jan. 3

15 December 2009

MANILA - Low cost carrier ZEST Air (Z2) is set to launch flight to Singapore scheduled to start on Jan. 30, 2010 while manifesting its intention to suspend temporarily the Clark flight to Hong Kong starting Jan. 3, 2010 due to fleet shortage.

The airline said the aircraft withdrawn from Clark is needed to augment the traffic demand for Kalibo and for it to service additional charter flights to Korea in January.

Zest Air also attributes lower than average sales out of Clark airport barely two months after it started flying out to Hong Kong after Cebu Pacific intensified its Clark hub by flooding more seats in December 8, 2009. Cebu Pacific now goes to Hong-Kong daily while Zest airways fly three times weekly, on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, leaving Clark at 3:50 p.m.

One senior official from Zest who does not want to be quoted, admits logistical issues as one of the problems plaguing their Clark operation as they cannot efficiently service the route due to limited number of planes on its fleet compounded by the strong demand for seats on other routes.

The airline also suspended its Cebu hub to augment flight demands to Kalibo. They were supposed to receive one MA-60 and one Airbus 320 this month but aircraft delivery was postponed by management until next year.

The carrier currently has a fleet of three Airbus A320, one of them being used for international operations, while the three MA60, a 56-seater turbo-prop plane is used for local destinations.