Gokongwei-led budget airline beefing up fleet

Cebu Pacific Air, the country’s biggest budget airline, bolstered its mid-range fleet with two additional Airbus A320 planes, a statement showed.

Cebu Pacific said in the statement that the aircraft, flown from the Airbus factory in Toulouse, France, increased to fleet size to 57 planes, including medium-range planes serving regional and domestic routes and long-haul aircraft serving the Middle East and Australia.

Between 2016 and 2021, Cebu Pacific will also take delivery of three more brand-new Airbus A320, 30 Airbus A321neo and 16 ATR 72-600 aircraft, the airline said.

The airline, a unit of Gokongwei-led conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc., said the new Airbus planes were equipped with fuel-saving wingtip devices called Sharklets.

Cebu Pacific is the third biggest budget airline by fleet size in the region, Capa-Center for Aviation said.

Capa noted that budget carriers might slow down their capacity expansion this year, similar to the trend seen in 2015.

Budget airlines, led by Malaysia’s Air Asia Group, decide to cut regional capacity growth in 2015 on what was described as challenging market conditions. Capa said that within Southeast Asia, capacity was up 9 percent in 2015.

By contrast, Capa said the seat capacity of full service carriers in the region grew 14 percent last year, outpacing the grown seen by budget carriers since the industry was born a decade and a half ago.

Capa said faster growth would come from budget airline capacity between Southeast Asia and other regions. Low cost carrier seat capacity here was up 14 percent in 2015, faster than the growth recorded by full service carriers, also because it was coming from a lower base.

“There are still opportunities for short haul LCC growth within Southeast Asia as the overall market continues to grow, boosted by economic growth and expansion of the region’s middle-class population. Pioneer markets such as Myanmar and Vietnam, particularly, have a lot of potential,” Capa said.