Sunday, October 23, 2011
BUDGET carrier Cebu Pacific is looking at expanding its operations in China after it grew 30 percent in terms of the number of passengers in the third quarter this year.
In its recent disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Cebu Pacific announced plans to increase flights to Beijing after its first year of operations there last Sept. 5.
Manila-Beijing-Manila flights will be a four times weekly service starting Jan. 7, 2012 to cope with demand, the airline said.
The company currently flies thrice weekly to Beijing and Guangzhou and daily to Shanghai. Cebu Pacific also has daily flights from Manila to Taipei; six daily flights to Hong Kong from Manila, Clark and Cebu; and 11 weekly flights to Macau from Manila and Clark.
“China is the next growth area for Cebu Pacific. We already serve Northern and Southern China with our current routes, but additional connectivity between our two countries will benefit tourism and trade,” said Cebu Pacific vice-president for marketing and distribution Candice Iyog.
According to Iyog, the Philippines is the nearest tropical destination to China.
“This is evident in the influx of tourists to Boracay and some of our top beach getaways. There are also a lot of enterprises in the Philippines that source out their materials in China. There is a lot of potential for growth, as we take delivery of more planes,” she said.
Cebu Pacific flew almost 2.8 million passengers in the third quarter this year with a system-wide 84 percent load factor. In the first nine months of the year, the airline already flew over 8.7 million passengers, on track for its 12 million target this year.
The airline flew almost 660,000 international and more than 2,129,000 million domestic passengers in the third quarter this year despite the lean travel season.
The number of passengers to and from Taiwan increased by 60 percent, while passengers to and from Vietnam grew by 56 percent. Traffic to and from South Korea also grew by 58 percent, as CEB now flies from both Manila and Cebu to Incheon (Seoul) and Busan.
“The number of Cebu Pacific passengers grew faster than our seat capacity in the third quarter this year. We expect these figures to surge further upward with long holidays, more flights and four new Airbus A320 aircraft that enter into service in the fourth quarter of this year,” Iyog said.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 24, 2011.
