Zest Airways

Zest Airways (AirAsia Zest)
IATA code :	Z2
ICAO code :	EZD
Call sign :	ZEST AIRWAYS
Founding:	1995
Operation stopped:	2015
Seat:	Manila , Philippines
Home airport :	Manila Airport
IATA prefix code :	457
Fleet size:	14th
Aims:	National and international
Website:	www.airasia.com
Zest Airways (AirAsia Zest) ceased operations in 2015. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation.

Zest Airways (from 2013 under the AirAsia Zest brand , originally Asian Spirit ) was a Filipino airline based in Manila and based at the local Ninoy Aquino International Airport . The company merged with AirAsia Philippines in autumn 2015 to form Philippines AirAsia and ceased its own flight operations at the end of 2015.

history

Asian spirit

Logo of the former Asian Spirit

Zest Airways was founded in 1995 by a cooperative called Asian Spirit. The cooperative consisted of 36 Filipino aviation employees, most of whom were recruited from the then financially troubled Philippine Airlines . The start of operations took place in April 1996, u. a. between Manila and Caticlan ( Boracay ).

In 2006, Asian Spirit flew from Manila, Angeles City and Cebu to 32 destinations nationwide. The first international connection was established on April 2, 2006 between Davao City and Koror on Palau . In March 2007, a first McDonnell Douglas MD-82 added to the fleet.

Zest Airways

Former Zest Airways logo

In October 2008 the company was renamed Zest Airways. As of March 30, 2010, Zest Airways was on the list of operating bans for the airspace of the European Union . The European Commission justified this step with the fact that the authorities responsible for the supervision of the air carriers licensed in the Philippines are not sufficiently able to identify safety deficiencies and to have them remedied, as emerged from an investigation by the international civil aviation organization ICAO in autumn 2009. According to the precautionary principle, all Philippine airlines were banned from operating in the EU.

On August 16, 2013, Zest Airways' operating license was provisionally revoked and the company was no longer allowed to operate flights. The reasons given were technical deficiencies, some flight cancellations and unsuitable management staff. Four days later, on August 20, 2013, Zest Airways received the approval for three aircraft back because they had resolved all disputes. After further investigations by the responsible authorities, the remaining aircraft were also given their operating license back on August 22, 2013. According to Zest Airways, the shutdown caused around 70 million Philippine pesos in damage per day and 7,000 passengers were affected by canceled flights.

AirAsia Zest branding

In September 2013 it was announced that the company would rename itself to AirAsia Zest as part of the partnership with AirAsia , which had acquired 49% of Zest Airways, and would in future bear the corporate design of the AirAsia Group.

In September 2015 the AirAsia Group increased its stake to 51%. Zest Airways was then merged with AirAsia Philippines , founded in 2010, in autumn 2015 . The new company was named Philippines AirAsia .

Destinations

Domestic flights are mainly offered to tourist destinations that are off the routes of major airlines, such as Philippine Airlines . Since 2010, Zest Airways has been cooperating with tour operators from the People's Republic of China and South Korea . The international connection to Koror was discontinued, but from October 2009 Zest Air added two new international destinations to the flight plan: Hong Kong and Sandakan . However, the flights were discontinued after a short time. In the 2011 winter season, Zest Airways will focus on international flights to Incheon , Gimhae and Shanghai airports from Kalibo and Mactan-Cebu International Airports . A further expansion of the flight destinations took place in the summer flight schedule 2011 to include the destination airports Cheongju , Muan , Chengdu and Taipei . National destinations were Davao , Bacolod , Busuanga , Cebu, Calbayog City , Catarman among others and the most important flight destination Kalibo. In the course of 2012, various destinations within the Philippines were abandoned, so Bacolod, Catarman, Virac, Calbayog are no longer served. The destinations Davao City and Puerto Princesa have been added from Cebu-Mactan . New international destinations from Manila are Shanghai , Kuala Lumpur and, for the first time from Clark, Seoul-Incheon.

fleet

A Xi'an MA60 from Zest Airways

In February 2015, the AirAsia Zest fleet consisted of fourteen Airbus A320-200s .

Incidents

• On December 7, 1999, a Let L-410 of the then Asian Spirit crashed near Bayombong . All 15 passengers and the 2 crew members died.
• On January 11, 2009, a Xi'an MA60 of Zest Airways had an accident while landing at Caticlan-Malay Airport. No one was injured in the accident, but the machine had to be written off due to the damage. The machine touched down too late on the runway, which was only 840 meters long, rolled over its end and remained in a drainage canal.
• On June 25th, 2009 another MA-60 of Zest Airways had an accident at Caticlan-Malay Airport, in this very similar accident again no people were injured. Inadequacies at the airport were recognized as the cause of the accident, as the machine landed with a tail wind and had to fly over a hill in front of the runway, the machine again touched down on the runway too late and rolled past its end. The airport was then subjected to an overhaul, the hill in the approach direction was removed and the runway was extended by 100 meters. Zest Airways has not served Godofredo P. Ramos Airport since this accident .

See also

• Former Airlines List (Asia)

Web links

Commons : AirAsia Zest  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• AirAsia Zest website (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Regulation (EU) No. 273/2010 of the EU Commission
2. ↑ europa.eu: Press release on the update of the no-fly list , accessed on April 2, 2011.
3. ↑ ch-aviation.ch - Zest Air grounded due to safety violations (English) August 16, 2013.
4. ↑ CAAP restores airworthy stamp on ZestAir planes. at: ph.news.yahoo.com
5. ↑ ch-aviation.ch - Zest Air becomes AirAsia Zest, rebrands itself into AirAsia colors (English) September 21, 2013.
6. ^ AirAsia set to consolidate Philippines operations, September 30, 2015
7. ↑ ch-aviation, Philippines AirAsia defers IPO to 2018, November 2, 2015
8. ↑ Zest Airways flight plan valid from October 2012 ( Memento from October 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 189 kB)
9. ↑ Ch-aviation : Fleet , accessed on February 10, 2015.
10. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
11. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
12. ↑ Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)