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Cebu Pacific losses widen to P13.8 billion in H1 2021

Aika Rey

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Cebu Pacific losses widen to P13.8 billion in H1 2021

IN THE RED. A Cebu Pacific aircraft.

Cebu Pacific

Cebu Pacific continues to bleed from January to June 2021 as the prolonged pandemic largely grounds air travel

Cebu Air, operator of budget airline Cebu Pacific, remained in the red as its losses widened to P13.79 billion during the first half of 2021.

In a filing on Wednesday, August 11, Cebu Air said the budget carrier continued to bleed from January to June as its operating loss reached P12.68 billion.

Revenues for the first semester declined 66% to P5.9 billion, with the cargo segment contributing nearly half of the total at P2.81 billion. The cargo business has been growing amid pandemic restrictions on air travel.

As the Philippines still failed to COVID-19 cases, Cebu Pacific struggled with the passenger air transport business, which slumped to P2.03 billion from January to June. While this figure is 82.4% lower than last year – when air travel was still allowed until mid-March 2020 – the budget carrier saw 28.8% growth quarter-on-quarter to P1.14 billion.

The number of Cebu Pacific passengers dove by 73.4% to 1.2 million, as the number of flights and seat capacity were halved.

Cebu Air also said fares were 33.7% lower to P1,705 from P2,571 in the same period a year ago.

Operating expenses, meanwhile, reached P18.59 billion, 23.6% lower year-on-year. The listed operator said this was mainly due to reduced operations, with flight operation expenses slashed by 59% to P2.89 billion.

Prior to the suspension of its regular flights due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Cebu Pacific operated 78 domestic routes and 25 international routes with a total of 2,717 scheduled weekly flights. 

As of June 30, Cebu Pacific only has 50 domestic routes and 11 international routes with a total of 589 scheduled weekly flights.

Cebu Air was down 0.44% to P45.30 apiece on Wednesday. – Rappler.com

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Aika Rey

Aika Rey is a business reporter for Rappler. She covered the Senate of the Philippines before fully diving into numbers and companies. Got tips? Find her on Twitter at @reyaika or shoot her an email at aika.rey@rappler.com.