MANILA - One of the country's youngest carrier Royal Air Philippines on Friday launched its Cebu hub along with 5 new routes to and from Central Visayas.

Starting May 20, passengers can book flights from Cebu to Manila, Davao, Puerto Princesa, Caticlan, and Cagayan De Oro and vice versa with tickets ranging from P1,000 to P6,000.

Royal Air, which started as a chartered carrier in 2002, forayed into commercial operations in December 2018 and is currently offering flights to Caticlan and Puerto Princesa from Clark.

It currently has 3 97-seater British Aerospace (BAe) AVRO 146 RJ-100 with at least 3 subleased Airbus A319 arriving in the next few months, CEO Ed Novillas said.

"Royal Air is serious in expanding our market reach across the Southern region," he said.

Novillas said the expansion would double its manpower to 140 from the current 77 by the end of July.

Royal Air also positioned itself as a boutique airline by selling "the best experience" with reasonable prices.

A quick search on their website showed one-way tickets to Caticlan from Clark for the month of July at just P1,500.

Passengers get 10 kilograms free check-in allowance on top of the 7kg hand carry items. It won't be selling "cup noodles" and cheap items on board, said Novillas.

"The challenge is we have to let people know who we are. We are not a legacy airline. We are also not a low cost carrier," he said.

It partnered with Singapore-based firm Sapphire for inflight entertainment platform containing premium contents such as movies, music and games for free.

The airline is owned by former travel agents who are expert in chartering Chinese tourists in the region, Novillas said, declining to disclose more information. Its chartered flights currently sustains the business, he said.

"We know in the commercial operations it takes a while to be noticed by people. In the airline business its hard to make money in a year. So we're banking in the charters in the evening or red-eye flights to fuel the operations," Novillas said.

The company currently charters Chinese tourists for the Lallo, Cagayan-Macau, Kalibo-Macau and Taipei-Kalibo routes, among others, Novillas said.

Royal Air is planning to operate flights to San Vincente, Palawan potentially by the end of the year, Novillas said. It currently operates daily Clark-Caticlan and Clark-Puerto Princesa flights.