Cebu Pacific goes shopping in Paris, makes $6.8B order for Airbus planes

Cebu Pacific

MANILA, Philippines — Budget airline Cebu Pacific went on a shopping spree on Tuesday as it sealed a deal to order 31 Airbus planes during the Paris Air Show, the world’s biggest aviation trade event. 

In the coming years, Cebu Pacific is set to acquire 16 A330neos, 10 A321XLRs, and five A320neos in a deal estimated at $6.8 billion. The airline also acquired an option for 10 more planes from Airbus’ A320 family.

The larger-capacity and more fuel-efficient planes will be used to replace Cebu Pacific’s existing fleet as they arrive from 2021 through 2026. 

Cebu Pacific president and CEO Lance Gokongwei said more efficient planes will allow the budget airline to offer low fares to customers. 

“The A330neo will give us the lowest cost per seat and allow us to continue offering the lowest fares. Moreover, the lower fuel burn matched with higher seat density will allow CEB to address growing demand for leisure and business travel, by upgrading aircraft and maximizing available airport slots in Manila and other megacities we serve,” Gokongwei said in a statement. 

Cebu Pacific said the A330neos will be fitted with 460 seats, higher by 5.5 percent than Cebu Pacific’s existing A330ceo planes. The A330neos will use the new Rolls Royce Trent 7000 engines and will burn up to 12 percent less fuel. It has a range of 7,200 nautical miles. 

Its A320neos will be fitted with 194 seats. Cebu Pacific said fuel burn and emissions will decrease as much as 15 percent, cutting costs per seat by about 7 percent. 

The A321XLR, which was also launched during the Paris Air Show and will be delivered to Cebu Pacific starting 2024, can carry 220 passengers for up to 11 hours given its range of 4,000 nautical miles. 

“This new and unique capability gives Cebu Pacific the opportunity to develop new markets from key cities other than Manila,” the airline company said. 

“Our strategy is to replace our fleet with bigger and more fuel-efficient aircraft to fly more passengers utilizing our existing slots while reducing our environmental footprint per passenger. We will be operating an all Airbus neo fleet by end-2024 and retiring our older generation jets,” Gokongwei said.

Cebu Pacific said the latest order is in addition to the 32 A321neo aircraft it ordered in 2011. Those planes will be delivered through 2022. 

Cebu Pacific has a fleet of 72 planes. These are comprised of two Airbus A321neo, seven A321ceo, one A320neo, 33 A320ceo, eight A330ceo, eight ATR 72-500s and 13 ATR 72-600s. Cebu Pacific has an average fleet age of five years.