Cebu Pacific likely hit 18-M passenger target

MANILA, Philippines - Cebu Air Inc., the operator of budget carriers Cebu Pacific and Cebgo, expects to have achieved its 18 million passenger volume target for 2015 due to the strong performance in the January to November period.

Cebu Pacific vice president for corporate affairs Paterno Mantaring Jr. said in a text message the group expects “full-year results will meet the 18 million target in passenger volume for 2015.”

Operating statistics posted on Cebu Pacific’s website showed its combined passenger volume with Cebgo reached 16.68 million in the first 11 months of 2015, 8.8 percent higher than the 15.33 million in the same period in 2014.

For the 11-month period, the total number of flights of the carriers rose by eight percent to 121,009 last year from 112,020 in the comparable period in 2014.

Mantaring said the “growth in passengers carried by the Cebu Pacific Air group from January to November 2015 can be attributed to Cebu Pacific’s long-haul operations in Australia and the Middle East, and the launch of our new route (Cebu-Narita) in Japan.”

For November alone, the airlines carried a total of 1.465 million passengers last year, up 5.4 percent from the 1.390 million passengers ferried in the same month in 2014. 

The carriers saw an increase in passenger volume even as the number of flights for the same period declined by 4.9 percent year-on-year. 

The airlines had a total of 9,918 flights in November last year, lower than the 10,434 in the same month in 2014. 

Cebu Pacific has announced earlier it plans to launch flights to new destinations this year. 

By March 15, Cebu Pacific will be flying to its first US destination through its services between Manila and Guam. 

The flights between Manila and Guam will be offered four times per week and utilize the airline’s brand-new Airbus A320 fleet. 

Cebu Pacific also has plans to begin offering services to Honolulu this year. 

On Friday, Cebu Pacific received its first Airbus A320 aircraft from Toulouse, France. 

The carrier expects to accept delivery of another brand-new Airbus A320 before the end of the month. 

With the new two new aircraft, Cebu Pacific would be operating a total of 57 aircraft composed of eight Airbus A319s, 35 Airbus A320s, six Airbus A330s, and eight ATR 72-500s.

Cebu Air’s network currently covers 64 destinations on over 98 routes.