Cebu Pacific seeks to regain dominant domestic market share

MANILA, Philippines — Budget carrier Cebu Pacific expects to start regaining market share in domestic flights which has suffered in recent years due to delays in the delivery of A321neos.

Cebu Pacific president and chief executive officer Lance Gokongwei said the carrier’s domestic market share should soar back to 52 to 53 percent this year after hitting a low of about 50 percent.

“Because of some delivery delays in 2018, we didn’t grow that much. Now our neo’s are beginning to arrive. So actually, beginning July, August we’ve been growing double digit already so we expect that we should be maintaining, if not growing, market share from the third quarter of 2019,” Gokongwei said.

“As you know, we’re taking seven more aircraft this year and about 15 more aircraft in the next five years,” he said.

Citing data from the Civil Aeronautics Board, aviation think tank CAPA Center for Aviation in a recent report said Cebu Pacific’s domestic market share peaked at 60 percent in 2014 and 2015 before dropping to 57 percent in 2016, 55 percent in 2017 and 51 percent last year.

The low cost carrier’s domestic market share stood at only 50 percent in the first quarter.
To further beef up its fleet, Cebu Pacific has placed a $6.8 billion order of 31 next generation aircraft from Airbus during the 2019 Paris Air Show in France.

The latest order is in addition to the 32 A321neo aircraft ordered in 2011, which are for delivery until 2022.
In line with its domestic market share recovery, Cebu Pacific is eyeing to become the largest carrier operating in Clark in terms of capacity by the end of the year, unseating flag carrier Philippine Airlines.

Gokongwei said Clark is seen as the carrier’s fastest growing hub in the next five years given ongoing improvements and expansion in the Clark International Airport.

“We can see now that Clark itself is growing. It’s now the center of a huge catchment, within three hours there’s 25 million people. Definitely the constraints in NAIA are also supporting the growth of Clark because if you want to serve Luzon, or you want an international hub to Visayas and Mindanao, Clark is the place to be right now,” he said.
Cebu Pacific earlier this month inaugurated operation of three new flights from the Clark International Airport, namely to Bacolod, Iloilo and Narita, Japan.

Aside from Narita, Gokongwei said Cebu Pacific is looking at more international routes from Clark.

Cebu Pacific also flies to three other international destinations namely Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong to and from Clark.