Cebu Pacific’s Manila-Melbourne flight to takeoff August 2018

Cebu Pacific photo by RAFFY LERMA

Cebu Pacific Air, the country’s largest budget airline, is launching flights to Melbourne, Australia on August 14, 2018 with regular ticket prices around 50 percent less than competitors.

This is Cebu Pacific’s second route in Australia after inaugurating flights to Sydney in 2014, signaling still-robust demand. It will mount flights between Manila and Melbourne thrice per week – Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

“The launch of our service between Melbourne and Manila will give travelers from Australia seamless connections to other destinations in the Philippines at year-round low fares,” Candice Iyog, vice-president for marketing and distribution of Cebu Pacific, said in a statement.

“This will enable Filipinos living in the Melbourne area to visit their families more often, and encourage more Australian tourists to spend their holidays in the Philippines,” she added.

As with previous launch events, Cebu Pacific is offering a seat sale with a promo fare of P2,199 starting February 27 through March 3 for travel between August 14 and October 31, 2018.

Its so-called year-round fares would start at P9,539, which, Cebu Pacific claimed, is 50 percent to 60 percent less than rival airlines.

Cebu Pacific said its entry into Australia spurred increasing demand growth.

“Since its entry, tourist arrivals from the Philippines has become one of the fastest-growing source markets for Australia, with an average 16 percent increase over the past four years,” the budget carrier said.

Prior to the entry of Cebu Pacific, tourist arrivals from the Philippines stood at around 70,000. Since 2014, that number had climbed to over 120,000, Cebu Pacific noted in its statement.                  /kga