Cebu Pacific to mount more flights to 5 international routes

MANILA, Philippines – Budget airline Cebu Pacific of taipan John Gokongwei will mount additional flights to 5 international routes after getting the approval of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB).

Cebu Pacific vice president for corporate affairs Jorenz Tañada said the low-cost carrier got additional flight entitlements for its routes Manila to Singapore, Myanmar, New Zealand and Macau, as well as Cebu to Hong Kong.

CAB granted Cebu Pacific 7 weekly flights from Manila to New Zealand, as well as an additional 1,260 seat entitlements from Manila to Singapore.

Meanwhile, Cebu Pacific will launch thrice weekly flights from Manila to Kuwait on September 2, and 4 times weekly flights from Manila to Sydney, Australia on September 9.

CAB also granted the airline’s opposition to the extension of the codeshare agreement between legacy carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Emirates on the Manila-Dubai route scheduled to expire in October. Cebu Pacific also flies to Dubai.

“We commend the CAB air panel for their wisdom in rendering decisions that allow Philippine carriers to expand services in international routes. This ultimately benefits the traveling public, as Cebu Pacific continues offering the lowest fares, and driving international arrivals aligned with the country’s tourism goals,” Tañada said.

On August 21, Cebu Pacific sought more flight entitlements to Hong Kong and Taiwan to accommodate more passengers, documents from the CAB showed.

Cebu Pacific operates an extensive network of 60 domestic and 34 international routes, with a total of 2,231 scheduled weekly flights. It will operate 62 Airbus aircraft with an average age of 4.16 years by 2017 as part of its $4-billion refleeting program.

Cebu Pacific is gearing up for possible flights to the United States particularly Hawaii and Guam after the US Federal Aviation Administration upgraded the safety rating of the Philippines back to Category 1, allowing local carriers to launch new and expand existing services to the world’s largest economy.

The airline is also looking at flying to London, Paris, and Amsterdam after the European Union lifted a ban preventing it from entering the European airspace.

Cebu Pacific serviced 8.05 million passengers from January to June this year or 568,854 more than the 7.48 million passengers it flew in the same period of 2013. – Rappler.com

*($1 = P43.72)