COTABATO CITY, Philippines – New local airline Bangsamoro Airways will embark on its maiden flight on Wednesday, April 24.
Bangsamoro Airways will initially fly to Zamboanga City and Sulu. It will carry six to 10 passengers, including the pilots, according to a press statement of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) posted on its official website.
Bangsamoro Airways, based in Cotabato City, is operated by Federal Airways Incorporated.
Bangsamoro Board of Investments (BBOI) Chairperson Mohammad Pasigan said in a phone interview on Saturday, April 20, that the trips will “mainly to cater government officials, medical supplies, and investors who are deeply challenged by the long travel time and routes when they plan to visit island towns and communities or deliver services.”
Pasigan said the opening up of the routes would reduce the days spent in the island towns as the Tawi Tawi-Cotabato schedule is only available on Thursdays and Mondays.
Bangsamoro Airways may extend its services to the municipalities of Sibutu and Mapun in Tawi-Tawi after three months of operation, and is also eyeing flights to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia later on.
Pasigan said this development is expected to bring more investors to BARMM.
“We will leave now the next step to the transportation ministry on how they will arrange the next move to fully operationalize or expand the interisland connectivity airways,” he said.
BARMM said in its press statement that based on the BBOI report, the region “recorded a total of P3.7 billion of investments, already surpassing the office’s 2024 target of P2.6 billion, in this current fiscal year as of April 2024, primarily encompassing Islamic banking, tourism, agriculture, marine, and industrial sectors.”
These investments created 1,155 job opportunities in BARMM, it added. – Rappler.com
