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AIRASIA IN THE RING WITH BOXING CHAMP MANNY PACQUIAO

Announcement posted by AirAsia 24 Jun 2017

SEPANG, MALAYSIA - 24 June 2017 - Nine-time world champion AirAsia will be flying boxing legend Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao to Australia for his World Boxing Organization (WBO) title defence.

Pacquiao, the only boxer to have won titles in eight weight classes, will be defending his WBO welterweight title against Australia’s Jeff Horn at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on 2 July 2017.

It will be his first defence of the title since winning it in a unanimous decision from American boxer Jessie Vargas in November 2016. 

AirAsia will fly Pacquiao and his team from their training camp in General Santos City in the Philippines to Brisbane on an Airbus A330 with special livery.
The aircraft will feature an image of the Filipino boxer next to the Pacman and Pound-for-Pound logos. 

WBO world welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao said, “In all my years of boxing, I have never been as motivated and fired up as this fight. With this agreement forged with AirAsia, I am inspired to give it all I got. 

“Teaming up with AirAsia makes it more special because we have been accorded the respect of the fans. I have been called the People’s Champion and AirAsia is a world champion airline, and I’m extremely proud to be flying with the Asean world champions.”

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said, “Manny is a huge inspiration to the Philippines and the whole of Asean. We want to show that this region makes world champions and no one is a better example of this Manny. Manny is like AirAsia, climbing to the top and staying there after all these years through blood, sweat and tears, and we are very honoured to be able to support him once again.”

Keep up to date with AirAsia’s latest promotions and activities via Twitter (twitter.com/AirAsia) and Facebook (facebook.com/AirAsia).

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PHOTO CAPTIONS
 
DSC03516 / DSC03564.jpg
Manny Pacquiao with his wife Jinkee preparing to depart from General Santos International Airport for Brisbane.
 
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Close-up of the special AirAsia Airbus A330 Pacman livery.
 
About AirAsia
AirAsia, the leading and largest low-cost carrier in Asia by passengers carried, services an extensive network of over 120 destinations. Since starting operations in 2001, AirAsia has carried more than 330 million guests and grown its fleet from just two aircraft to over 200. The airline is proud to be a truly Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) airline with established operations based in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines as well as India and Japan, servicing a network stretching across Asia, Australia and New Zealand, the Middle East and the US. AirAsia has been named the World’s Best Low-Cost Airline at the annual Skytrax World Airline Awards nine times in a row from 2009 to 2017. AirAsia was also awarded World's Leading Low-Cost Airline for the fourth consecutive year at the 2016 World Travel Awards, where it beat a field of full-service carriers to become the first ever low-cost carrier to win World's Leading Inflight Service.