AirAsia’s transit hubs: Bahrain today, Bulacan next?

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February 16, 2026 | 12:00am

Notes on the beat

MANILA, Philippines — About five decades ago, a 12-year-old boy from Kuala Lumpur was sent to the United Kingdom by his parents to attend Epsom College, a boarding school in England.

The boy took the flight alone – the reason being that flying was costly – so his shirt bore a badge for unaccompanied minors to easily identify him in a crowd.

The flight made a stopover in Bahrain, so the boy was accompanied off the aircraft by an adult to wait at the airport, where the thought of being alone in a foreign land sent shivers down his spine.

Locals, probably sensing the anxiety of the boy and upon seeing the badge on his shirt, talked to him to keep him entertained, saying he was a brave boy to travel overseas on his own. When he boarded the flight again, he told himself that he would one day return to Bahrain.

That was in 1976. The boy has flown to Bahrain countless times since then, but this year it is for a different purpose: to invest $10 billion in the country.

The 12-year-old, Tony Fernandes, grew up to become the co-founder of one of the world’s best low-cost airlines, AirAsia.

Last week, Fernandes led AirAsia’s unit for long-range flights AirAsia X in signing an agreement with the Kingdom of Bahrain, turning the country into its transit hub to Europe and Africa.

The Bahrain International Airport, the oldest in the Persian Gulf, will become the designated stop for AirAsia’s flights between Kuala Lumpur and London, scheduled to begin on June 26.

Between 1976 and 2026, Fernandes flew to Bahrain for business purposes, but never to make the country a transit hub. The tycoon’s short-lived stint as a Formula One owner took off in Bahrain, where in 2010 his team, Lotus Racing, debuted in motorsport’s highest competition.

Fernandes’ F1 dream never really flew off unlike AirAsia, so he abandoned it in 2014. Without the Bahrain Grand Prix on his schedule, the tycoon had made fewer trips to Bahrain since then.

At the streets of Davos during the World Economic Forum in 2025, a smiling, spectaled Ishaq A. Ishaq introduced himself to Fernandes, asking to consider Bahrain for AirAsia’s expansion plans.

Back then, Fernandes still had the collapse of his F1 team in mind, so he brushed off the request, but Ishaq was persistent in getting AirAsia on board that he bugged the businessman for days.

Ishaq heads manufacturing, transport and logistics for Bahrain’s Economic Development Board, and his goal is to make the capital city Manama a viable hub for one-stop flights like its Middle East brothers Doha and Dubai.

Ishaq acquainted Fernandes with the CEO of the board, Noor Ali Alkhulaif, to discuss how they could make AirAsia to fly directly to Bahrain. In a little over a year, Fernandes was persuaded by Ishaq’s team, admiring how “dynamic, honest and humble” the group works.

Moreover, AirAsia needs a place to stop in the Middle East for its plan to offer flights to Europe and Africa. Fernandes committed to spend more than $10 billion to build up AirAsia’s network in Bahrain, and this investment is expected to create around 100,000 jobs.

The investment will cover placing 150 aircraft in Bahrain, adding 45 million passengers, linking the country to 120 cities and establishing a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility.

The STAR asked Fernandes if such a plan can be replicated in the Philippines, particularly as the country is building new airports to decongest the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

His answer was concise: NAIA is already congested, operating beyond capacity, so he is waiting for the completion of the P735.63-billion New Manila International Airport (NMIA).

The first phase of NMIA can handle up to 35 million passengers a year, with operations set to begin by late 2028. Fernandes said once that airport in Bulacan is opened, his airline can start considering scaling up its Philippine base.

The Philippines sits just 12 hours away from the US West Coast, and AirAsia is planning to enter the US, too. Who knows, maybe AirAsia could make Bulacan its next Bahrain?

For now, the country has to wait, as NAIA is so overcrowded that regulators ordered airlines to relocate their turboprop flights elsewhere by March 29.

Private operator New NAIA Infrastructure Corp. is also undertaking a P170.6-billion project that aims to raise NAIA’s capacity to 62 million per year, but that would take time, too.

Back in Bahrain at the airport, the terminal is well-lit; an entertainment zone keeps kids jumping and running; the free internet is easy to access; the interiors are bound by paintings from leading Bahraini artists; and above all, the air conditioning never falters.

Apart from the whiff of nostalgia, it is so easy to understand why Fernandes picked Bahrain to be his airline’s gateway to the western part of the world.