Cebu Pacific to start daily flights to Sydney on Dec. 1

Cebu Pacific Air, the country’s biggest budget airline, will start daily flights between Manila and Sydney in Australia on Dec. 1 this year.

The carrier said it was increasing frequencies given robust demand on its current five weekly flights.

“Cebu Pacific continues to remain bullish over prospects in the Australia market,” Candice Iyog, vice president for marketing and distribution of Cebu Pacific, said in a statement.

“The additional frequency between Manila and Australia reflects our commitment to reinforce the Cebu Pacific effect across one of our strongest international markets. We want to continue to offer our year-round low-fares that are affordable, accessible and available to a greater number of travelers,” she added.

Cebu Pacific is already the biggest air carrier operating between Manila and Sydney. It bested two other rivals in the first quarter of 2017.

Citing data from Australia’s Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE), Cebu Pacific said it had a market share of 42 percent and continued to see gains in passenger volume. During this period, it carried 43,512 passengers, up 16 percent.

The same report noted that overall passenger traffic between Manila and Sydney had gone up 7 percent year-on-year.

Cebu Pacific noted that its load factor, a measure of flight utilization, in this route stood at 78 percent during the first three months of the year.

Cebu Pacific said it was also a leading player in the Manila-Sydney airline cargo service.

The airline flew 1,131 tons of cargo between Manila and Sydney in the first three months of 2017, about 49 percent of the total 2,325 tons carried by the three carriers.

The growth in Cebu Pacific’s cargo service tracked the increase in total volume, from 1,567 tons carried in the comparable quarter last year, citing data from BITRE.

Cebu Pacific already offers the most number of seats between Manila and Sydney, covering close to 40 percent of the route’s total capacity.