Royal Air Philippines (Royal Air) announced that it will suspend commercial passenger flights starting January 4, 2026.
Just weeks before the suspension announcement, the airline was still publicly posting recruitment advertisements.
At the same time, complaints on social media about flight delays, last-minute cancellations, and disrupted itineraries involving the carrier continued to build.
One of the regions most directly and heavily affected was Taiwan’s outbound travel market. With Royal Air suspending operations, the only direct and convenient air link between Taipei and Boracay (Caticlan) was cut off.
According to estimates, between January and April 2026, approximately 3,000 to 4,000 passengers with existing bookings will be affected.
Royal Air was founded in 2002. Its parent company is the Lancang–Mekong Group, backed by Chinese private enterprises and non-state capital. The airline initially focused on charter services before transitioning to a low-cost carrier model in December 2018.
Data from OAG show that in 2025 Royal Air operated seven scheduled routes, with those connected to the Chinese market mainly concentrated in Quanzhou, Hong Kong, and Taipei. According to its official website, the airline had also attempted to expand into other mainland China routes, including Guangzhou, Wuhan, Nanning, and Wuxi.
Royal Air’s business model has largely relied on leisure travelers from mainland China and South Korea heading to Philippine resort destinations such as Boracay and Bohol.
The challenge, however, is that recovery in these two core source markets has been far slower than expected.
Although Royal Air showed signs of recovery in 2023 and 2024, carrying 100,000 and 116,000 international passengers respectively, the momentum did not continue into 2025. In the first nine months of last year, the airline transported only 51,800 international passengers.
Its domestic operations were in even worse shape, with passenger traffic plunging 63% year on year to 38,800 in 2024, down from 104,000 in 2023.
Meanwhile, major Philippine airlines have continued to expand their fleets and route networks, rapidly squeezing the operating space available to small and mid-sized carriers.
