Cebu Pacific News Archive

CAB confirms Cebu Pacific is really the No. 1 domestic airline

Cebu Pacific (CEB) really is the leading domestic airline in terms of passengers carried according to Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) data just released. CEB carried a total of 2,256,289 passengers from January to June 2007, compared to Philippine Airlines’ 1,981,267.

The Gokongwei owned budget carrier also attained an 84% load factor compared to 80% and 72% of its nearest competitors. CEB’s load factor percentage is up from 74% for the same period in 2006. CEB’s total domestic passenger carriage increased by 72% for the first half of the year. The CAB also confirmed that the domestic air travel market grew by an impressive 24% in the first half of 2007.

Candice Iyog, CEB vice president for marketing and product said: “We are very happy with our growth and the overall growth of domestic air travel in the Philippines. This impressive growth rate makes the Philippines one of the fastest growing air travel markets in the world. We at CEB are proud to be driving that growth which can only help to support the countries ongoing economic and tourism agendas.”

 “This accomplishment proves our commitment to bring air travel closer to the public. We will build on this as we further expand our fleet, destinations, and frequencies to make flying more fun, affordable and accessible to all. We are especially excited by our ongoing international expansion and our 4 new international destinations joining our international network in the coming weeks” Iyog added.

CEB’s continuous growth in market share and load factor can be attributed to its ongoing fleet expansion, aggressive pricing strategy, and active search for and opening of new domestic routes.

CEB has also recently placed an order for up to 20 Airbus A320 aircraft and up to 14 ATR 72-500 aircraft. This will be used to achieve CEB’s target of carrying up to 15 million passengers by 2013.

“We may not have a French designed terminal but with the arrival of our brand new French built ATR72-500 aircraft in early 2008, we will be able to serve more destinations and more local travelers.  We are very happy to see that we’ve been giving more people the opportunity to travel by air with our very low year round fares and our continued domestic service expansion,” Iyog concluded.

Now in its 12th year, CEB has the youngest fleet in the Philippines with an average age of just over a year old. CEB operates 14 brand new Airbus aircraft to its 20 domestic and soon to be 12 international destinations with the addition of Shanghai, Xiamen, Guangzhou, and Macau in the coming weeks.