The Philippines’ leading carrier, Cebu Pacific (PSE: CEB), increases its capacity in key hubs to address increasing demand from tourists and business travelers. The increases are a combination of additional flights and upgrading to aircraft with more seats.
In its Cebu hub, Cebu Pacific has increased the weekly frequency of flights to and from Cagayan de Oro (Laguindingan), Dumaguete, Siargao, Iloilo, Caticlan (Boracay), Ozamiz and Zamboanga by an average 63%, staring April 15, 2019. Flights between Manila and Cebu had likewise increased 24%. The increase in flights from its Cebu hub is on top of its six-times-weekly Cebu-Shanghai and Shanghai-Cebu routes which began on April 15, 2019.
Cebu Pacific had earlier stated they would ramp-up capacity in its Cebu hub by as much as 20% in 2019. The carrier is positioning Cebu has its beach hub—with strategic connections to foremost vacation destinations such as Siargao, Camiguin, Puerto Princesa and Caticlan (Boracay). From Cebu, CEB also mounts direct flights to Bacolod, Butuan, Cagayan de Oro, Calbayog, Clark, Davao, Dumaguete, General Santos, Kalibo, Legazpi, Pagadian, Surigao, Tacloban, Hong Kong, Macau, Tokyo (Narita), Singapore and Incheon.
For its Clark hub, CEB has also increased capacity of flights to and from Caticlan (Boracay) by 231%–shifting from the 78-seat ATR 72-600 aircraft to the Airbus A320. The carrier had earlier announced it would launch daily flights between Clark and Iloilo; Clark and Bacolod; as well as Clark and Narita, starting August 9, 2019; and daily flights between Clark and Puerto Princesa starting October 9, 2019.
“We are now in a position to allot aircraft to expand key routes in our other hubs. We are excited over the prospects for growth and will continue to roll-out new routes when the opportunities arise,” said Alexander Lao, Vice-President for Commercial Planning of Cebu Pacific.
Meanwhile, CEB will also mount an additional daily flight between Manila and Bangkok, starting April 28, 2019, raising capacity by 41%. The carrier is also upgauging aircraft for key international routes from Manila starting this month, switching to its 236-seat Airbus A321NEO for flights to and from Narita and Denpasar (Bali), ramping up capacity by three percent, respectively; and to its 436-seat Airbus A330 for its Osaka and Shanghai routes, which will grow the number of seats by 90%, respectively.
In 2018, CEB flew over 20 million passengers to 37 domestic and 26 international destinations, across over 107 routes spanning Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and USA.