More Flights to and from Davao City

Davao International Airport (DIA) or more aptly called Francisco Bangoy International Airport (IATA: DVO, ICAO: RPMD) is the main airport serving Davao City and the whole Davao Region. It is considered as the busiest airport in Mindanao and one of the busiest in the Philippines in terms of passenger and aircraft traffic. In 2009 figures, it was named as the third busiest airport in the country after Manila's NAIA and Cebu's MCIA. It is not clear if it still hold the title as Clark was recently identified as the fastest growing airport in the country as it is being groomed as the nation's premier gateway and to eventually replace the ageing NAIA. DIA has registered a total of 2,229,177 passengers for 2010 according to a CAAP report posted on their website but Clark no such data is available for Clark International Airport as of posting time.

Currently, DIA is being served by six major Filipino Airlines (Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific Air, Airphil Express, Midsea Express and Zest Airways) and by two International Airlines (Silk Air and Tiger Airways). It also has connections to 6 domestic cities (Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga, Cebu, Tagbilaran, Iloilo, and Manila) and 1 international city-Singapore. But that will change in a few days as for the month of March, two Filipino Airlines (AirAsia Philippines and Airphil Express) will be launching a direct Clark-Davao-Clark flight making DIA's connections to a total of 8 cities.

AirAsia Philippines finally got a nod to launch scheduled flights from its hub,Clark International Airport. To launch its commercial flights, AirAsia Philippines will initially fly to Davao City and Kalibo on the 28th of March. AirAsia will have 2 daily flights flying the Clark-Davao Route, and their website http://www.airasia.com/my/en/home.html has started to offer 20,000 free seats for booking starting on 28th of February until 4th of March and for travel on the 28th of March until the 31st of January of 2013. One only has to pay P190.00 pesos to cover taxes, fuel charge and other government fees. Clark is an alternative airport if you want to avoid the busy and overcrowded NAIA. It is also the main airport that serves the Clark Freeport Zone, Angeles City and Pampanga Province. AirAsia will be using its newly purchased Airbus A320 and with the following schedule;

PQ7023 CLARK-DAVAO Departs 1010H; Arrives 1200

PQ7024 DAVAO-CLARK Departs 12:25H; Arrives 14:15

PQ7027 CLARK-DAVAO Departs 17:50H; Arrives 19:40

PQ7028 DAVAO-CLARK Departs 20:05H; Arrives 21:55

With the entry of AirAsia Philippines, local carriers will surely be facing tough competition and it is expected that they will be fighting head on for a strong share of the Philippine Aviation Industry. Following the announcement of AirAsia's Clark-Davao flight, Airphil Express has also announced that will also be serving this route starting on the day after Airasia is scheduled to launch its maiden flight. For it's part, Airphil Express will start with 3 weekly flights every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

But wait, there's still more; Philippine Airlines, in a recent statement, disclosed plans of connecting Davao City to Darwin in Northern Australia as PAL will received its two Boeing 777 orders this year and another two more next year that's according to an article posted on the Business Mirror on 15th of February: http://businessmirror.com.ph/component/content/article/53-agri-commodities/23311-pal-set-to-get-four-777s-open-darwin-davao-route.

In the same article, PAL is also said to be considering mounting flights from Davao City to Hong Kong and Singapore. Notably, Cebu Pacific Air used to fly this route in 2007 until they suspended this service.

If PAL would indeed start flying the Davao-Darwin Route then that would surely benefit a lot of Filipinos living in Northern Australia. Further, people travelling from Cebu, the Visayas, or other areas in Mindanao can avoid having to go to Manila for their connecting flight to Australia since Manila is already congested as it is and most flights coming to and from Manila normally experience delays and even cancellations. So we just have to wait and see but surely we can expect more and more flights coming in and from Davao City in the next months to come!