Cebu Pacific News Archive

Cebu Pacific orders up to 14 brand new
ATR72-500 aircraft

Gokongwei owned airline, Cebu Pacific (CEB) will expand its fleet further with the acquisition of up to 14 ATR72-500 aircraft worth more than US$ 250 million.

The Toulouse, France based international aircraft manufacturer, Avions de Transport international (ATR) is the world leader in the 50 to 74 seat turboprop market. 

After CEB completed its US$670 million re-fleeting program last March 2007, CEB announced that it would purchase up to 20 Airbus A320 aircraft worth US$ 1.3 billion in order to serve the growing market demand for low fares in the Philippines and in Asia. 

Lance Gokongwei, CEB President and CEO explained that the move to further expand its fleet with the ATR fleet is a continued manifestation of CEB’s commitment to bring air travel closer to more Filipinos and to bring them to new destinations which CEB cannot operate to at the moment due to runway length and strength limitations.    

“We are buying up to 14 brand new ATR 72-500 aircraft for our continued expansion. The order is made up of 6 firm orders, with an additional 8 options. The first 2 ATR72 aircraft are expected to arrive in early 2008 and the complete delivery is expected by 2013.” Gokongwei explained.

Filippo Bagnato, CEO of ATR said, “We are very happy that Cebu Pacific has chosen the ATR 72-500 aircraft, thus allowing ATR to enter the Philippine market for the first time. The ATR aircraft, with their unbeatable economics and superior comfort, is the optimal choice for CEB. At present, there are 136 ATR aircraft operated by 30 airlines across the Asia Pacific region.”

Gokongwei said that with the ATR fleet, CEB will now be able to fly into more airports in the country and more importantly, CEB will be able to bring its trademark low fares to more Filipinos.  

“We are looking forward to operating to more destinations and connecting more islands because we know that this is good not only for tourism but for our economy as a whole.  It’s time we brought our trademark low fares to every Juan,” Gokongwei added.

Now in its 12th year, CEB operates the most domestic destinations, flights and routes and has the youngest fleet in the Philippines at just one year. CEB operates 14 brand new Airbus aircraft to its 20 domestic and soon to be 8 international destinations with the addition of Taipei beginning June 13, 2007.