CebuPac gets aircraft support from Bulgaria Air

MANILA, Philippines — Low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific has completed the delivery of two aircraft it leased from Bulgaria Air.

In an advisory, Cebu Pacific announced that it has received the Airbus A320ceos that it is renting from Bulgaria Air for at least four months.

Cebu Pacific said the first delivery of the aircraft was made last Jan. 3, while the second and final unit arrived last Jan. 7.

Cebu Pacific will use the planes leased from Bulgaria Air to serve Manila trips to Cebu and Davao. The airline, owned by the Gokongweis, will keep the 180-seater units in its fleet between January and April.

In an earlier interview with The STAR, Cebu Pacific CEO Michael Szucs said that the airline will end 2024 with a total of 92 planes in its fleet.

However, Szucs admitted that 20 of those units would be parked in the shop for a minimum of 240 days to make way for the repair of their jet engines.

Those aircrafts, mostly Airbus A320neos, are powered by engines produced by Pratt & Whitney, which is recalling the product to fix a manufacturing defect.

Apart from this, Cebu Pacific expects delays of up to five months in the delivery of new aircraft from Airbus, as the maker of commercial jets tries to complete its backlog of orders to operators worldwide. The delays could last for another three years, according to Szucs.

In response, Cebu Pacific made a damp lease of two units from Bulgaria Air. It will also decrease its flight volume to long-haul destinations like Dubai to reallocate their aircraft to short-haul, but popular routes like Bangkok and Hong Kong.

Likewise, the airline has allocated P50 billion for its capital expenditures in 2024, mainly for the procurement of new jets, understanding that the demand for air travel will keep on expanding in the pandemic aftermath.

Cebu Pacific will place a firm order for the acquisition of as many as 150 jets from either Airbus or Boeing in a transaction that could possibly reach $18 billion.