PH airline industry recorded healthy gains in Q1, says CAB

The country’s airline industry continued to post healthy gains in the first quarter of 2012, due largely to the budget airlines that have made air travel affordable for millions of Filipinos.

Data from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) showed that the number of international and domestic passengers in the Philippines grew by 11.77 percent in the first three months to 9.415 million.

Gokongwei-led Cebu Pacific remained the country’s top airline, expanding its market share in the period as flag carrier Philippine Airlines slipped further behind.

With 2.37 million domestic passengers in the period, Cebu Pacific cornered a hefty 46 percent of the domestic air travel market—up from 42 percent last year.

This came as PAL and affiliate Airphil Express both carried 1.06 million passengers, or a share of 21 percent each.

PAL saw its domestic market share shrink from 26 percent as its passenger volume shrank 9.5 percent.

On the other hand, Airphil Express saw its market share grow by a point as its passengers rose 20 percent.

For its part, Zest Airways saw its passenger base grow to 626,952 from 517,939, with its market share growing to 12 percent from 11.

Southeast Asian Airlines (Seair) saw its passenger numbers fall from 46,879 last year to just 10,037 in the first quarter.

Total domestic passenger volume was at 5.16 million, up 13 percent year on year.

Meanwhile, Cebu Pacific also continued to make gains on the international front as its passenger volume reached 711,478 from 605,175 in the same quarter last year.

Its market share was up by a point to 36 percent.

But PAL remained the international industry leader with a market share of 56 percent, albeit down from 59 percent last year. This translates to about 1.09 million passengers, up slightly from 1.01 million the year before.

Affiliate Airphil Express saw its international operations falter as its passengers fell to 34,914 from 38,940 the year before. Its market share remained at 2 percent.

Zest Airways, which is owned by Zest-O juice drink creator Alfred Yao, flew 68,991 international passengers for the period. This represents a growth of 72 percent from 39,990 the previous year, bumping up the firm’s market share by a point to 3 percent.

Seair was another big gainer as its passengers nearly doubled to 65,175 from 35,509.