Zest Air - Marinduque Flight

Zest Air (former Asian Spirit) is known for bad reviews. But despite that January fiasco at the Caticlan runway, we still booked flights with Zest Air last February for Holy Week since it's the only airline going to Marinduque and we didn't want to compete with the ferry crowd at the Lucena Port.


We didn't expect much for the P1k fares but were surprised (and happy) that it wasn't that bad too.

Of course, contacting their Reservations Hotline can be quite a task. Yes, you may wonder if they only had one phone line to service all incoming calls. And yes, nobody responds to e-mail inquiries from their end. Still, if you call the Reservations Office around 8 AM< you're more likely to get connected to an agent.

Calling to reconfirm flights is very important. The flight schedule for Marinduque supposedly leaves at 6 AM from Manila but after reconfirming, it has been moved to 8 AM. We were asked to board the plane at around 8:20 AM (so yeah, the general airport practice of checking-in two hours before departure time sucks, especially for planes that are as small). I miss the one-hour grace period of old (for domestic flights, that is).

Zest Air was handing out free flavored water at the airport, and I liked the Apple one.

Anyway, the trip takes around 30 minutes only. The plane used to fly us can accommodate 30 passengers. No snacks were served (unless maybe for those holding P3k tickets? because I did see the stewardess with a tray carrying three juice packs?). The seating is a little cramped but for a short flight, it's negligible inconvenience. The air conditioning was working, I didn't hear of complaints about dripping water, and any of the others i've been warned about.

The runway in Marinduque is short and non-smooth so we really felt it when our pilot landed the plane. But it wasn't so bad and i've seriously had worse jeep and cab rides.

The crew were friendly and accommodating. They were the ones that offered my son a chance to meet the pilots, and the pilots were more than happy to have him sit in the cockpit (son didn't want to let go of Mommy though).


Terminal Fee at the old domestic airport is P200. It's just P20 at the Marinduque airport but you also pay a service fee of P50 per passenger for the Zest Air agents there.

The return trip was just as uneventful. And we're planning on flying to Marinduque again in May... and Boracay in July. So shall I recommend the airline to others? Absolutely, if they can afford to be realistic with their expectations and really want to cut on travelling costs.