2014 PH air passenger volume up to 38.3M

MANILA, Philippines – The aggressive route expansion of Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Cebu Pacific contributed to an increase in air passenger traffic in the Philippines by 1.6%.

The volume of air passengers in the country reached 38.27 million. This is 610,291 passengers more than the volume of passengers in 2013, according to data released by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) on Thursday, May 28.

International passenger traffic grew 3.4% to 17.92 million last year from 17.32 million in 2013. Domestic passenger traffic, meanwhile, was flat at 20.35 million from 20.33 million.

Both PAL and Cebu Pacific introduced new long-haul routes in 2014 and also expanded their international routes.

PAL flew 4.98 million passengers while PAL Express serviced 150,266 passengers to international destinations in 2014. Cebu Pacific flew 3.19 million passengers to international routes.

Cebu Pacific continued is dominance in the domestic front as it flew 11.08 million passengers within the Philippines last year or 8.2% higher to 10.24 million passengers in 2013.

Sister airline Tiger Airways Philippines, now known as Cebgo, serviced 1.3 million passengers or 34.5 percent higher compared to 969,753.

But PAL slumped 69.3% in domestic passenger volume to 793,512 last year from 2.58 million in 2013 after transferring most of its domestic flights to PAL Express, its low cost carrier unit.

PAL Express, in turn, carried 5.13 million passengers last year from 4.35 million in 2013 or an 18% increase in domestic passenger volume.

The country’s main gateway, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), handled 34.1 million international and domestic passengers last year, 4% higher versus 32.8 million in 2013.

In 2014, the number of arriving and departing domestic passengers at NAIA went up by 1.8% to 18.02 million from 17.69 million in 2013, while international passenger traffic climbed by 5.9% to 16.07 million from 15.17 million, data from the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) showed.

Takenaka Corporation of Japan already completed the P1.9-billion ($42.60-million) retrofitting works at NAIA Terminal 3. DM Consunji Incorporated expects to complete the P1.3-billion ($29.15 million) rehabilitation of NAIA Terminal 1 in June. (READ: Aquino says ‘worst airport’ now looking much better)

Meanwhile, data from the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) showed the volume of passengers at the country’s second busiest gateway slipped 2% to 6.84 million in 2014 from 6.99 million in 2013.

Volume of domestic passengers fell 3.4% to 5.16 million last year from 5.34 million in 2013 while that of international passengers rose by 3% to 1.68 million from 1.63 million. – Rappler.com