Cebu Pacific shelves plans to revive Manila-Beijing flights

Cebu Pacific is not too keen on expanding its operations to China as demand has remained tempered, thus postponing the relaunch of the Manila-Beijing route indefinitely.

Xander Lao, president and chief commercial officer of the Gokongwei-led airline, told reporters last week that they were not seeing a “quick recovery on China,” whose tourist arrivals have yet to revert to prepandemic levels.

The popular Asian destination, prior to the pandemic or in 2019, welcomed 97.7 million tourists. Last year, it only received 35.5 million despite the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

“Clearly, the demand to and from China, at least for us, has not been as robust compared to 2019,” Lao said.

As such, Lao said they were suspending “until further notice” the Manila-Beijing flights, which the airline had been planning to revive since last year.

This route was previously offered by Cebu Pacific but the operation was stopped during the pandemic when border restrictions were up.

The airline last year resumed flights to Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Xiamen.

Competitors Philippine Airlines and Air Asia Philippines have also reopened their China network following the easing of border restrictions.

But Lao said they were still hoping the Chinese market—one of the top sources of international tourist arrivals in the country prior to the pandemic—would recover eventually.

For now, Cebu Pacific is reallocating its resources to destinations where growth is projected.

“We are moving some of our routes from China to other places such as Chiang Mai and you’ll see a few more announcements hopefully in the next couple of weeks,” he said.

Last week, the low-cost airline announced the launch of Manila-Chiong Mai route—the only direct flight to the popular northern Thai city from the country. It will be offered thrice weekly starting Oct. 29.

It also recently launched flights from Manila to Don Mueang in Bangkok and routes from Cebu to Don Mueang, Osaka, Masbate and San Vicente.

Cebu Pacific saw its first-quarter net earnings more than double to P2.24 billion on the back of busier operations. Passenger revenues, in particular, improved by 25 percent to P18 billion as volume grew by 14 percent to 5.5 million passengers.

The airline services over 35 domestic and 24 international destinations.