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Of a pandemic launch and fuel price hikes: How Sunlight Air stayed in the air

Raine Musñgi

ABS-CBN News

MANILA — Starting an airline is already a high-risk bet. Starting one without an aviation background, then launching during a pandemic, is another story.For Sunlight Air CEO Ryna Brito-Garcia, quitting was not an option.“We didn’t really expect…that we would be hit by the pandemic,” Brito-Garcia said of the airline’s launch. Its first flight to Coron took off on Dec. 25, 2020, just as COVID-19 was devastating air travel. The startup survived by changing its business almost as fast as the crisis changed the market: from leisure flights to e-commerce cargo, medical and missionary flights, fish and poultry, while also creating a pandemic-era travel bubble. “The good thing about Sunlight Air being a small team…was that changes could happen so quickly,” she said. Now the bet is different: don’t fight the giants on their biggest routes. Find destinations they cannot efficiently serve.<div><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qXQk2LAEquE?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe> </div>That strategy is tapping into a tourism economy worth ₱3.16 trillion in domestic tourism spending in 2024, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. Tourism directly contributed 8.9% of GDP that year. Sunlight’s latest bet is <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/food-travel/2026/8/5/sunlight-air-to-launch-flights-to-romblon-this-august-1247" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tablas, Romblon</a>. Brito-Garcia said bookings opened only a month before the route launched, yet had already generated “millions” in revenue, with bookings coming from China, Canada, Italy, the UK and the US.But the bigger startup play may be what happens beyond the aircraft. Sunlight bundles baggage, legroom, and snacks with hotel, transfer, and tour discounts, effectively trying to capture more of the traveler’s journey than airfare alone. And the founder says even a missing snack can become a business lesson. After passengers repeatedly asked, “What happened to your banana chips?”, the airline brought them back, supporting a local supplier and farmers in the process. The next test is scale. Despite this year’s fuel price spikes and inflationary pressures, the airline is looking at more routes and fleet expansion or restructuring within six years, while keeping its focus on the Philippines. If it eventually flies internationally, Brito-Garcia says the goal is to bring foreign travelers here. But that’s only part of the bet. In the full interview, Brito-Garcia reveals what nearly derailed the airline, how she decides which “risky” destinations are worth flying to, why government regulators became unlikely allies, and what she thinks big airlines still miss about passengers.

Starting an airline is already a high-risk bet. Starting one without an aviation background, then launching during a pandemic, is another story.

Starting an airline is already a high-risk bet. Starting one without an aviation background, then launching during a pandemic, is another story.