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Astral Airways' main base is Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila. This airline is no longer in service. They had a temporary CAAP certificate.
Astral Airways was established as formerly Asian Spirit in September 1995 by three friends: Antonio "Toti" Turalba, Emmanuel "Noel" Oñate and Archibald Po, who contributed $1 million each to start up the Airline Employees Cooperative (AEC). A group of 36 people, mostly former Philippine Airlines employees, ran Asian Spirit through a salary-to-equity swap deal. The Po family held the majority of ownership.
It started operations in April 1996 with two second hand Dash 7 aircraft servicing only one scheduled commercial route with two flights per day from Manila to Malay, serving the island of Boracay. To maximize its aircraft utilization, it introduced new routes to San Jose, Virac, Daet and Alcantara, and the cities of Cauayan and Masbate, regarded as secondary and tertiary routes by Air Transportation Office, and not serviced by major airlines.
