Cebu Pacific increases flights to meet demand

Cebu Pacific Air, the country’s largest budget carrier, is increasing international and domestic capacity amid an expected boost in passenger traffic during the summer months, a statement on Tuesday showed.

The move involves either increased flights or the use of larger planes to Taipei, Hong Kong and Hanoi as well as to popular summer destinations like Boracay (Caticlan), Cebu, as well as Coron and Puerto Princesa in Palawan.

For its Manila to Taipei flights, the airline said it would use a larger Airbus A330 aircraft for two out of seven weekly flights from May 2 to June 3, increasing its capacity. It will use its smaller Airbus A320s for the rest of the week.

“By upgrading some of our Taipei flights to a bigger aircraft, we are able to offer 41 percent more seats, making more low fares to and from Taipei available for every Juan,” said Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing and distribution Candice Iyog.

Additional flights were also under way for Hong Kong and Hanoi, Vietnam.  From April 11 to May 2, the airline will offer four additional weekly flights between Manila and Hong Kong.

This would increase the current 28 fights per week to 32 flights, noted Cebu Pacific, which also flies to Hong Kong via hubs in Cebu, Clark and Iloilo.

Cebu Pacific, the only domestic carrier operating direct flights between Manila and Hanoi, said it would serve the route with three flights per week.

For domestic routes, it will add two weekly frequencies from both Manila and Cebu to Caticlan. From April 27 to May 4, the airline will operate 64 weekly flights from Manila to Caticlan.

Those headed from Manila to Coron (Busuanga) can also choose from 20 weekly flights. Two weekly frequencies were added on select dates in April and from May 5 until further notice.

Meanwhile, those headed from Manila to Cebu can choose from up to 92 weekly flights on select dates in April and from May 11 to 31, 2014.

Cebu Pacific will also have a total of 11 weekly flights from Cebu to world-renowned surf spot Siargao  from April 19 to June 6.

More flights from Cebu to Puerto Princesa (total 11 weekly flights) and to Legazpi (total 6 weekly flights) are also available between April and June 2014.

The airline is slated to take delivery of 12 more brand-new Airbus A320, 30 Airbus A321neo and 3 Airbus A330 aircraft from 2014 to 2021, the statement showed.

Cebu Pacific’s 51-strong fleet is comprised of 10 Airbus A319, 30 Airbus A320, 3 Airbus A330 and 8 ATR-72 500 aircraft.

Cebu Pacific is currently the only profitable domestic carrier, having posted a net income of P511.9 million in 2013.

That figure was 85 percent below the previous year mainly due to foreign exchange losses. Increasing demand for budget travel boosted revenues to P41 billion, up 8 percent last year.