Promo fares hike 2011 airline passengers by 13% to 19-M

MANILA, Philippines – Aggressive promotional fares of local airlines to destinations in the Philippines hiked air traffic by over 13% to 18.76 million, data from Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) showed.

“It’s a major factor as to why this industry is growing,” explained CAB executive director Carmelo Arcilla on Saturday, February 4.

The increase in the number of passengers flying with the 5 local commercial airlines was expected, Arcilla said, adding that, aside from the fare sales, the local airlines’ strategy to mount flights to new destinations and increase seats in current routes also gave the local market a boost.

This was echoed by Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing and distribution Candice Iyog who said the growth in the leading airline’s passenger traffic in 2011 was mainly due to its increased flight frequencies apart from discounted fares it offered.

Industry players

Below is a table to show the performance of the airlines. Data was provided by CAB.

 
Load factor refers to the number of seats occupied during a flight. It’s an industry measure of profitability.

PAL had labor issues in 2011, with some of the employees who were laid off after the Aquino government gave its nod to the airline’s outsourcing strategy, picketed and disrupted some operations, resulting in the cancellation and some reduction in flights.

Airphil Express is the low-cost arm of PAL, and is 99% owned by the Lucio Tan Group. PAL, however, is 95% owned by Tan.

Cargo

The 5 airlines transported a total of 183,312,679 kilograms (kgs) last year, slightly lower than 2010 figures of 183,477, 448 kgs. last year.

Below are the details.

– Rappler.com