Cebu Pacific to give discounts for gov’t employees on business trips

MANILA, Philippines – Cebu Air, the operator of the country’s largest budget airline, signed a deal with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to provide discounted fares for government employees on official business trips.

The airline on Monday, November 28, signed a Government Fares Agreement (GFA) with the Procurement Service, an attached agency of the DBM headed by Secretary Benjamin Diokno. 

This administers the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS), the agreement that entitles government employees to discounted fares on official business trips. 

Under the deal, all official travels of government employees will be granted discounts, and the processing and rebooking fees will be waived.

The agreement also aims to centralize the purchase of air tickets among government agencies.

“This is a huge step into our goal of getting the highest value for the hard-earned money of our Filipino taxpayers. The DBM estimates savings [of] more than one billion [pesos] in aggregate discounts and waived fees under GFA,” Diokno said.

As early as January 2017, government agencies can avail of the discounted fares through the DBM Procurement Service website. 

The website will provide government agencies a link to open Cebu Pacific’s online portal.

“With this partnership, government offices can purchase airline tickets faster and easier, as CEB is now part of their system of suppliers,” said Lance Gokongwei, president and CEO of Cebu Pacific.

In April, Philippine Airlines (PAL) also inked the same deal with the DBM, estimated to save the government from about P1.3 billion pesos on airfare annually.

Cebu Pacific did not state how much discount it will provide to government personnel on official business trips.

For PAL, all official domestic trips of government employees are given 8% discount for economy class reservations, 10% discount for business class, additional baggage allowance, and waiver of processing fee worth P250 per ticket, among others.

The government had earmarked P10.3 billion for domestic airline travel for 2016 alone. – Rappler.com