New Cebu-China routes to open

CEBU, Philippines — The Mactan-Cebu International Airport is opening two new routes to China this month.

In a statement, airport administrator GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corporation (GMCAC) said China Eastern and Juneyao Airlines will both commence flights from Shanghai Pudong International Airport to Cebu within the month.

China Eastern will have seven flights weekly in its first run from today to October 28, and will resume operations on January 18, 2018.

Juneyao Airlines, on the other hand, will commence thrice-weekly flights on October 30.

Meanwhile, Okay Airways will launch thrice-weekly flights to China’s historic Xi’an City also on October.

Juneyao Airlines and Okay Airways are MCIA’s newest Chinese Airline partners. New routes to Beijing and Bangkok are also expected to be opened in the next two months.

By end of October, MCIA will likewise serve a total of 18 international destinations and 35 domestic destinations.

“Promoting the province and its surrounding areas to other Asian countries, especially China, is among our highest priorities,” said Louie Ferrer, GMCAC president, in the same statement.

He said studies have shown that China is the highest spending tourist market in the world, and that they “want to bring this high-spending Chinese market to Cebu”, which he said is appealing as a tropical destination.

"Cebu has endless natural wonders but it still has all the modern luxuries. It is also a tourist-friendly place because its people are very warm towards visitors and can communicate well in English," he said.

Destination marketing, according to Ferrer, is their main strategy in strengthening Cebu’s connectivity.

"We have seen outstanding results from our destination marketing initiatives these past three years but this is only the beginning. We are looking to promote Cebu to other untapped markets, and this includes other provinces in China. Australia and other Southeast Asian countries like Thailand are also high in our list," he said.

He also confirmed that the company was targeting new flights to north Asia, and the Middle East, North America, and Europe.

MCIA, Ferrer said, will also open more domestic flights later in the year.

"We are very excited by these developments. As Cebu’s tourism grows, so will the airport. We are working round the clock to ensure that MCIA is capable of handling the increasing number of passengers this will bring," he further said.

GMCAC took over operations of MCIA on November 1, 2014, when MCIA only had seven international and 23 domestic destinations.

Development at the MCIA has been garnering positive attention from the international airport community.

Last month, GMCAC and MCIA hosted the Global Airports Development (GAD) Asia Conference, the first airport development conference to be held in the Philippines.

The event was attended by leaders in international airport finance and development. 

In 2016, MCIA was named Best Regional Airport in Asia Pacific from the CAPA Center for Aviation.

Earlier this year, it received a special “Commendation for Excellence in Airline Marketing” from Routes Asia. (FREEMAN)