Royal Air Philippines has collapsed into administration, with between 3,000 and 4,000 passengers holding bookings from January through March left stranded. In a letter to a travel agency ahead of Christmas, CEO Eduardo Novillas flagged sluggish demand and cautioned that the carrier would suspend commercial flights by January 4. The airline was founded in 2002 as a charter operator and pivoted to a low-cost carrier model in 2018 after receiving its commercial flight licence the previous year.
Its inaugural passenger service took to the skies eight years ago. Royal Air Philippines is owned by the Cambodia-registered Lanmei Group, also referred to as the Lancang-Mekong Group. It is underpinned by Chinese investment and was established by Li Kun, the former president of Shenzhen Airlines, who now serves as its chairman.
At its height, the airline served international destinations including Cambodia, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In a parallel development, a British airline collapsed into liquidation weeks earlier following a reported attempt to raise £20 million. The British airline was Scottish company Ecojet Airlines, heralded as the world's first all-electric airline, established in 2023 by entrepreneur Dale Vince.
Ecojet Airlines had ambitious plans for long-haul flights and European routes, with an initial service between Edinburgh and Southampton mapped out. A petition was submitted to Edinburgh Sheriff Court to wind up Ecojet Airlines and appoint joint interim liquidators, as documents from late January reveal. The specific financial or operational issues that led to the Royal Air Philippines collapse remain unclear, as does the exact date when flights were suspended and the current operational status.
The broader implications for the aviation industry in the Philippines and Southeast Asia following this collapse are not yet known, nor are details on how many employees are affected and what support is available to them. For stranded Royal Air Philippines passengers, the timeline and process for receiving refunds or alternative travel arrangements are uncertain. According to the airline, it is working on providing refunds and hopes to resume flights at an unspecified date in the future.