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| Founded | 1995 (as Asian Spirit) | |||
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| Hubs | ||||
| Fleet size | 10 (+6 orders) | |||
| Destinations | 26 | |||
| Company slogan | Asia's most refreshing airline | |||
| Parent company | AMY Holdings, Inc. | |||
| Headquarters | Pasay City, Philippines | |||
| Key people | ||||
| Website | Official Site | |||
Zest Airways Inc. (formerly Asian Spirit) is an airline based in the Asian Aeronautics Hangar in the General Aviation Area in Pasay City, Metro Manila in the Philippines.[1] It operates scheduled domestic and international tourist services, mainly feeder services linking Manila and Cebu with 24 domestic destinations in support of the trunk route operations of other airlines. Its main base is Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, and with a hub at Mactan-Cebu International Airport[2] Also these hubs outside Manila still have to be made operative as of July 2009.
The airline was originally founded as Asian Spirit, the first airline in the Philippines to be run as a cooperative.
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Zest Airways was established as Asian Spirit in September 1995 by three friends: Antonio "Toti" Turalba, Emmanuel "Noel" Oñate and Archibald Po, who contributed $1 million each to start up the Airline Employees Cooperative (AEC). They invited 36 of their friends, mostly former Philippine Airlines employees, to run Asian Spirit through a salary-to-equity swap deal. The Po family held the majority of ownership.[3][4][5]
It started operations in April 1996 with two second hand Dash 7 aircraft servicing only one scheduled commercial route with two flights per day from Manila to Malay, serving the fledging resort island of Boracay. To maximize its aircraft utilization, it introduced new routes to the present-day towns of San Jose, Virac, Daet and Alcantara, and the cities of Cauayan and Masbate, regarded as secondary and tertiary routes by Air Transportation Office, and are not serviced by major airlines. In 1997, the cooperative changed to a corporate set-up with the establishment of Asian Spirit, Inc., whose registration was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2005.
At the time, Asian Spirit has the distinction of being the first scheduled airline to serve Boracay. Other operators served the airport on a charter basis then. It became the Philippines' fourth flag carrier (after Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific and Air Philippines) in 2003.
Asian Spirit was sold to AMY Holdings, a holding company controlled by businessman Alfredo M. Yao, in March 2008.[6] After the success of the takeover, Yao expressed interest in merging Asian Spirit with South East Asian Airlines (SEAIR). The two airlines have been in merger talks and were expected to make a decision soon.[7] Yao was supposed to purchase a sixty percent stake in SEAIR,[8] although the deal fell through because of a stolid response from SEAIR management.[9] The merger talks failed and both airlines are operating independent.
On September 30, 2008, Asian Spirit officially announced that it will be re-branding itself as Zest Airways. Reports say the name switch reflects the Yao's stake in the company, as well as an allusion to the flagship business of AMY Holdings: juicemaker Zest-O. The firm’s board approved the name change in August, while the Civil Aeronautics Board approved the switch earlier this month.[10]
The airline wants to fly to three international points to Sandakan( - already stopped), Malaysia from Zamboanga, to Seoul from Kalibo, Laoag, and Davao, and Macau from Angeles City. However these international routings never took off.[11] It intends to commence international expansion to Bangkok and Singapore from Manila sometime in 2009.[12]
On October 3, 2011, Manila Bulletin, a newspaper of national circulation in the Philippines, reported the signing of memorandum of understanding between Zest Air owner Alfredo Yao and his counterpart from private Chinese airline Hainan Airlines[13] but the share of ownership by the HNA group under the agreement was not disclosed. The signing coincided with the visit of President Aquino to China in September 2011. The constitution of the Philippines allows only up to 40% foreign ownership in any business registered in the Philippines. Zest Airways is majority-owned by the Zest-O group.
Updated October 10, 2011 (The Philippine Star) a newspaper of national circulation in the Philippines, reports that Zest Air denies buy-in of China's Hainan Airlines
MANILA, Philippines - A top official of Zest Airways denied newspaper reports that they have signed an agreement with a Chinese airline during President Aquino’s state visit to China and that the latter bought a 40 percent stake in their company.
In a statement, Arturo M. Alejandrino, Zest Air spokesman and member of its board of directors, said “Zest Air wishes to clarify that no memorandum of understanding has been signed between Hainan Airlines and ZestAir. Further, Hainan Airlines has no investment in Zest Air.”
The Zest Airways fleet includes the following aircraft (as of 4 January 2011[update])[14][15]
| Aircraft | In service | Orders | Options | Passengers (Economy) |
Routes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airbus A330-300 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 440 | Bangkok, Dubai, Riyadh |
| Airbus A319-100 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 144 | Domestic |
| Airbus A320-200 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 180 | Domestic, Incheon, Busan, Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai-Pudong, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur |
| Xian MA60 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 56 | Domestic |
| Aircraft | Year Retired | Replaced by |
|---|---|---|
| McDonnell Douglas DC-9 | 2008 | Airbus A320-200 |
| BAe 146-200 | 2008 | Xian MA60 |
| BAe 146-100 | 2008 | Xian MA60 |
| BAe ATP | 2008 | Airbus A319-100 |
| CN-235 | 2008 | Xian MA60 |
| de Havilland Dash 7 | 2009 | Xian MA60 |
| Let-410 | 2008 | Xian MA60 |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-82 | 2008 | Airbus A320-200 |
| McDonnell Douglas MD-83 | 2008 | Airbus A320-200 |
| NAMC YS-11 | 2008 | Xian MA60 |
Zest Airways has acquired both the Airbus A320 and the Xian MA60, the only Philippine airline to do so, as part of its refleeting strategy.[9]
The Airbus A320 aircraft were originally delivered to JetBlue Airways in 2003. They were purchased in September 2008 and delivered in December 2008 and January 2009. The aircraft were than repainted in Pinal Airpark in Arizona into Zest Airways livery and the seat configuration has been changed from Y 150 to Y 162.
On June 3, 2009, the airliner ordered 6 more Xian MA60's to be delivered starting October.[17] but the delivery has been delayed for unknown reasons.
On July 11, 2009 RP-C 8989 arrived at Diosdao Macapagal International Airport. The A320 MSN 3621 made its first flight on September 12, 2008 under a French registration F-WWIK as was originally ordered by Kingfisher Airlines but was not accepted. The aircraft was subsequently sold to Asiawide Airways Inc. the holding company for all aircraft of Zest Airways owned by AMY Holding.[18]
On August 2, 2009, the airline revealed that it would be able to mount international flights with the starting delivery of two brand new Airbus 320 in October this year. This is in addition to the first A320 it purchased earlier. The company was eyeing to buy 2 Boeing 767-300 aircraft to bring its total fleet to 11 aircraft by year end, flying to major tourist destinations in the country. This is part of the $150 million second wave of capital expansion. In 2008, the company invested $170 million.[15] This additional fleet expansion never happened.
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