Cebu Pacific News Archive

Cebu Pacific willing to consider more flights from Clark

Cebu Pacific (CEB), the country’s leading domestic carrier said that it is willing to increase its operations from Clark if EO500A will prevent the continuous operations of foreign airlines currently operating into Clark. This is in response to recent local and regional leaders who have expressed concern regarding the implementation of EO500A that would require foreign carriers to be officially designated by their respective governments while also meaning that foreign airlines could no longer operate from Clark to third countries.

Lance Gokongwei, CEO and President of CEB said “We don’t believe that non-Filipino airlines should be able to freely operate unlimited frequencies to third countries from the Philippines when those same rights are not also extended to Filipino airlines in their own country nor in the foreign airlines’ home bases. At CEB we are all in favor of a liberalized air market but only when liberalization is balanced and fair in terms of opportunities for all airlines.”

He continued “We can understand the concerns of regional business leaders in terms of this executive order but we can hopefully allay their fears by saying that service levels at Clark may be restored even if the EO remains in it’s current format. We at CEB are very encouraged by the continued growth of the whole Clark region and as such we hope that any cessation of service by foreign airlines will be short lived with CEB, given the necessary resources, and no doubt other Filipino airlines happy to fill the temporary void.”

CEB started service to Clark from Cebu just last month with a daily service now being operated. The airline uses its brand new 150 seat Airbus A319 for the service which leaves Cebu at 10:15am to arrive in Clark at 11:35am. The return flight leaves Clark at 12:05pm to arrive back in Cebu at 1:25pm.

The country’s low fare leader currently has an introductory seat sale of only P99 one-way. The promo fare is available until November 10 and has a travel date until December 15, 2006. After the seat sale the lowest ‘Go’ fare between Cebu and Clark starts at just P568 one-way. The promo and year round ‘Go’ fares are exclusive of surcharges and government tax.

Now in its 11th year, CEB has the newest fleet in the Philippines and one of the newest in Asia as it operates 12 brand new Airbus aircraft to its 20 domestic and 6 regional destinations. The airline awaits the delivery of two more Airbus aircraft in early 2007 to complete its $670 million re-fleeting program.