Cebu Pacific passenger volume up

Airline ticket promotions helped boost the passenger volume of budget carrier Cebu Pacific Air ahead of the busy summer months.

Cebu Pacific said in a statement Tuesday that passenger volume in the first quarter of 2016 jumped 13 percent 4.8 million passengers year-on-year. It said flights were about 87-percent full for the period that covered January to March this year.

“Periodic seat sales, lowest year-round fares, and robust travel demand contributed to the surge in passengers,” the carrier said.

Some of its popular destinations for the first quarter included Tagbilaran, Dumaguete and Cagayan de Oro for domestic, and Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai for international.

The airline also took delivery of two brand-new Airbus A320 aircraft in January and another this April as part of its conservative fleet expansion plan.

To cater to the upward travel trend this summer, the carrier mounted more than 60 additional weekly flights from Manila, Cebu, Iloilo and Davao to several domestic and international destinations. The airline offers flights to a network of more than 90 routes on 64 destinations spanning Asia, Australia, the Middle East and the United States.