Under her leadership, Sunlight Air is expanding with Clark and Cebu as its main hubs.
On April 1, Sunlight Air flight 2R601, bound for Busuanga (Coron), departed from Clark International Airport (CRK) at 2:10 pm. The maiden flight signified an expansion for the new airline as it makes Clark and Cebu its main hubs after it began its Manila operations during the pandemic.
For Sunlight Air CEO Ryna Brito-Garcia, seeing the ATR72-500 plane being welcomed by traditional water cannons on the runway was a moment that marked the positioning she wants for the airline. “Our commitment is to deliver exceptional customer service and top-tier flights to underserved local destinations,” she says. “This move will allow us to better deliver our trademark quality of service to many more Filipinos.”
Brito-Garcia, whose leadership is characterized by a positive and “do first” approach, has big ambitions for the carrier. When she co-founded Sunlight Air in 2019, they wanted to “create a small charter boutique airline that would revolutionize the industry in the Philippines through customer service and individualized flight experiences.”
“We built the airline from scratch, including writing our procedures for that kind of passenger experience,” she says. “Customer service is our primary goal.” The smaller aircraft that Sunlight Air uses means fewer passengers, and they can make every passenger’s experience more personalized with an empathy-first style of customer service.
“Our secondary goal is to make our island destinations accessible. With that said, despite being a boutique airline, it’s still important for us that we keep our prices reasonable.”
Femininity is no longer seen as a weakness, and many top companies and brands in the country are also led by women that the younger generation, and even I, can continue to look up to.
Sunlight Air hits the sweet spot with its fare structure and destinations. As international tourism in the Philippines is picking up and domestic travel remains strong, there is bigger demand to connect Central Luzon and Cebu—not just Manila—to destinations around the country. In 2023, the Philippines received 5.4 million international tourists. The year before, the country had one of its best years for local travel: 102 million domestic trips that contributed P1.5 trillion to the economy.
When they started operations, Sunlight Air flew only from NAIA Terminal 4, where it now caters exclusively to flights between Manila and Cebu. “We want to be in underserved dream destinations. Given the smaller runways of some of the provinces we service, our aircraft are better suited to smaller airports. This ties in with our goal to bring more tourism into the Philippines and to encourage Filipinos to explore and immerse themselves in the natural beauty of our country.”
Sunlight Air is planning to expand its fleet with two more aircraft in 2025 and 2026, but she says the airline will stick to domestic flights in the next three years and perhaps expand to international flights in the future.
As the only female CEO that runs an airline, Brito-Garcia says she was warmly welcomed by her peers in the industry. “I face day-to-day challenges as every leader does, but my unique approach to running Sunlight Air comes with my feminine flair of empathy and resilience,” she says. “Every day is honestly a different challenge, and it’s always unpredictable what kind of problem you’ll run into. Thankfully, femininity is no longer seen as a weakness, and many top companies and brands in the country are also led by women that the younger generation, and even I, can continue to look up to.”
But Brito-Garcia is in a unique position to inspire young girls who dream of making a career in industries traditionally run by men. She says, “I want young girls to know that they can do anything they set their mind to, and that despite the many challenges and curve balls life will throw at them, they are capable of overcoming them no matter what society says.”
Aviation, however, is not the first or the last industry in what will definitely be a long and storied career for Brito-Garcia.
Expat in Sydney, Singapore
Ryna Brito-Garcia grew up in Manila, the eldest among six siblings. “My family lived like most others did; our parents took us out to the movies on Sundays, and my siblings and I loved playing together.”
Even when she was young, her dad would talk to her about business and her parents’ rags-to-riches story was imprinted in her mind. “Being an entrepreneur is ingrained in me. I think many entrepreneurs will agree with me that there’s a very thin line between your professional and personal life. It’s the same with the lessons we get from it—you learn to be more resilient and you learn to face your challenges head on.”
I learned that not every opportunity comes easy, and it’s important to grab them while you can.
From her mom she learned, quite recently too, to “say no to things or situations that will affect your physical or mental health negatively.”
Brito-Garcia has a degree in Business Administration and worked first in the hospitality industry—in sales and marketing, then she worked her way up as general manager, until she became operations manager at Sunlight Ecotourism Resorts.
When Sunlight expanded its charter flights into a commercial airline, she “dove headfirst into aviation” and “learned everything on the fly and got familiar with the work because I was surrounded by so many industry professionals from other airlines.”
Before Sunlight, she worked in fashion, legal, and tech as an expat in Sydney and Singapore. She also once worked in a boutique copywriting agency when she was in her sophomore year in university.
From working abroad, she “learned that not every opportunity comes easy, and it’s important to grab them while you can. It was also while working with my previous superiors abroad that I learned to be meticulous with my output, that respecting people’s time is an important value in a workplace, and that having a standard system in place is very important for a company to run smoothly. I also learned the importance of work-life balance to maximize productivity.”
She remembers her expat years with fondness—Sydney especially. Her favorite time working and living there was when Australia adjusted its clocks for Daylight Savings Time. “Coming out of my office building it would still be bright out and you can decide whether you’ll walk around the city, relax and chill at home, or take a 30-minute bus to the beach. Having nature so accessible to you daily is the biggest luxury I could ever wish for.”
Next to Sydney, she loves Fukuoka. Her husband proposed to her in a coastal town called Itoshima, 45 minutes away from Fukuoka, and they got married last year. The couple has been traveling with her husband’s family since Japan lifted all Covid restrictions, one of the last countries to do so.
“Fukuoka is only a three-and-a-half-hour flight from Manila, so it’s become our long weekend getaway. We usually go there to enjoy the Japanese food (way cheaper than in Manila!), and drink coffee around three to four times a day in between walking around the city.”
When she has more time and Sunlight Air becomes more established, she says, she wants to open her own consulting agency that “focuses on helping startups grow their businesses.”
During the pandemic, Brito-Garcia immersed herself in creative work. She designed her own clothing brand and created a planner from scratch. “On a more personal level, I’ve always dreamt of creating a maternity and baby clothing brand, as well as writing children’s books.”
For a boss woman like Brito-Garcia, it’s easy to imagine that those dreams will take flight sooner than later.
