Chinese carriers likely to hike flights to Cebu

CEBU, Philippines — China emerges as a strong driver of international traffic for Mactan-Cebu International Airport, as more Chinese cities are seen to be directly connected by air to Cebu this year.

Erwin Balane, who heads the route development at the Department of Tourism, said China has risen as among the strongest markets for Cebu, alongside Korea and Japan.

Balane said China remains a top priority in future route prospects for Cebu.

“We expect Chinese carriers to increase their frequencies to Cebu and mount new routes,” the official said in an interview on the sidelines of the Routes Asia 2019 currently being held in Cebu City.

Capacity between MCIA and China more than doubled in 2018 following a string of new route additions and service increases.

According to figures from OAG Schedules Analyser, the total number of two-way seats grew by 116 percent year-on-year to 279,308 in 2018.

During the year, China Eastern launched its three-weekly Cebu-Chengdu and Cebu-Nanjing flights, and upgraded its Cebu-Shanghai service from an A320 to the wide-body A330 aircraft for a two-month period.

Cebu Pacific started its twice-weekly chartered flights to Beijing, while Philippine Airlines opened a Nanjing service and subsidiary PAL Express mounted charter flights to Hangzhou.

Figures provided by OAG Schedules Analyser show that China is now the third largest international destination from Cebu following an increase of almost 150,000 available two-way seats in 2018, compared with the previous 12 months.

Cebu was connected to 13 points in mainland China in 2018, with Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Changsha new destinations added.

However, South Korea remains MCIA’s largest international market, with total capacity growing 12.3 percent in 2018 to 974,931 available seats. Japan remains second despite a 0.3 percent drop. (FREEMAN)