Cebu Pacific, Tigerair sustain growth for Jan-Oct

MANILA, Philippines – Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific) and Tiger Airways Philippines (Tigerair) posted a 15.7% growth by flying 13.94 million passengers from January to October this year.

For the same period last year, the budget carriers flew 12.04 million passengers.

The continuous growth was “driven by increased presence in key markets, sustained demand for air travel, and industry capacity rationalization,” Cebu Pacific vice president for corporate affairs Jorenz Tañada said.

The capacity of Cebu Pacific and Tigerair grew 13.1% to 16.56 million in the first 10 months of 2014 from 14.64 million in the same period in 2013, attributed to the delivery of 4 brand new aircraft. This also translated to a higher load factor of 84.2% for the same period this year, versus 82.3% in the same period in 2013.

The number of flights also rose 5.2% – from 96,563 to 101,586. For October alone, the volume of passengers carried by Cebu Pacific and Tigerair jumped 24.2% – from 1.13 million  to 1.41 million in the same month in 2013.

Capacity also rose 12.8% – from 1.49 million to 1.68 million, translating to a higher load factor of 83.9% from 76.2%. Number of flights went up by 7.4 percent – from 9,605 to 10,318.

The Gokongwei airlines are also on track to meet the target of 17 million passengers for 2014.

Cebu Pacific is also beefing up its flights to 9 domestic and 3 international routes in time for the Christmas season.

By December 15, Cebu Pacific will mount additional, twice weekly Manila-Cebu and Manila-Tuguegarao routes; thrice weekly flights for the Manila-Dumaguete route; and 4 times weekly flights for the Manila-Zamboanga route.

Passengers traveling from the Visayas region to Singapore could also expect additional weekly flights for the Iloilo-Singapore route between December 17 and January 14.

Cebu Pacific will also mount additional thrice weekly flights for the Cebu-Singapore route between December 19 and January 7.

The budget carrier will also utilize the large A330 aircraft for some of its Manila-Singapore flights from December 15 to January 9. – Rappler.com