CebuPac sees 10% rise in load

Cebu Pacific Air, the country’s biggest budget carrier, saw continued growth in passenger traffic in the first half of 2016, led by gains across key domestic and international routes, a statement issued Wednesday showed.

Cebu Pacific, a unit of Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings Inc., flew more than 10 million passengers from January to June this year. That was 9 percent better than the level in the same period last year. Its first half  passenger load- a measure of flight utilization– was at 87 percent.

The carrier earlier said it was targeting to carry 20 million passengers for the whole of 2016, about a tenth higher than the previous year.

Cebu Pacific said the higher passenger volume in the first six months was driven by popular domestic destinations in Visayas and Mindanao such as Kalibo, Tacloban, Siargao and Tagbilaran.

Leading destinations overseas included  China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.  Passengers to and from Japan, in particular, spiked by 21 percent as a result of the launch of Cebu-Tokyo (Narita) service in March 2015 and the Manila-Fukuoka route in December 2015.

Long-haul international passengers to and from the carrier’s destinations in the Middle East and Australia also contributed to the upturn “after posting a substantial increase in volume from January to June 2016 versus the same period last year.”

“These promising figures encourage us to cater to the growing travel demand not just in Manila, but throughout our six strategic hubs nationwide,” a spokesman for Cebu Pacific said in the statement.

Cebu Pacific’s network currently spans Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and USA.

It recently announced three new routes from Cebu to Calbayog (Samar), Ormoc (Leyte), and Roxas (Capiz), bringing its total number of domestic destinations to 36. It also currently flies to 30 international destinations, including Dubai, Incheon, Guam, Tokyo, and Sydney.

Its 57-strong fleet is composed of seven Airbus A319, 36 Airbus A320, six Airbus A330, and eight ATR 72-500 aircraft. Between 2016 and 2021, Cebu Pacific expects delivery of 32 Airbus A321neo and 16 ATR 72-600 aircraft, according to the statement.