Cebu Pacific on track to hit 20 M passengers

MANILA, Philippines - Budget carrier Cebu Pacific is on track to achieve its 20 million passenger volume target for the year after carrying over 10 million passengers in the first semester.

In a statement, Cebu Pacific said passengers flown from January to June were higher by nine percent year on year.

On average, the airline’s flights were 87 percent full during the period.

For June alone, the Cebu Pacific Air group served 1.6 million passengers, up eight percent from the 1.5 million passengers flown in the same month in 2015.

Cebu Pacific attributed the higher passenger volume to popular domestic destinations in the Visayas and Mindanao such as Kalibo, Tacloban, Siargao and Tagbilaran.

In terms of international short haul destinations, Cebu Pacific saw strong demand in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.

Long-haul passengers to and from destinations in the Middle East and Australia, likewise contributed to the higher passenger volume during the first half.

“We are very proud to share with you that since Cebu Pacific’s inception in 1996, our passengers now number more than 130 million and counting. These promising figures encourage us to cater to the growing travel demand not just in Manila, but throughout our six strategic hubs nationwide,” said Paterno Mantaring, Cebu Pacific vice president for corporate affairs.

 “We are optimistic that with the support of relevant airport and government authorities, we can continue offering our trademark lowest fares to even more Filipino travelers in the years to come,” Mantaring added.

Cebu Pacific earlier said it would start flying to new routes from Cebu to Calbayog (Samar), Ormoc (Leyte), and Roxas (Capiz), to bring its total number of domestic destinations to 36.

Apart from domestic points, Cebu Pacific also has flights to 30 international destinations in Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and US.

Last year, the group composed of Cebu Pacific and Ceb-go flew a total of 18.4 million passengers.