New international air routes to open by yearend

CEBU, Philippines — New international routes are expected to open from Cebu by end of this year as international traffic at the country’s second busiest air hub continues to build up.

Tigerair Taiwan announced it is launching direct flights to Cebu starting Dec. 1 to tap into the growing travel exchanges between the two countries.

The budget airline said Cebu is its first destination in the Philippines.

Aviation think tank CAPA Centre for Aviation also said Qatar Airways might launch its Cebu-Doha service by end of 2018 although the airline "has not yet announced a launch date".

"Middle East capacity is expected to grow by early 2019 as Qatar Airways has unveiled plans to resume services to Cebu," CAPA said.

Qatar suspended services to Cebu in 2012, when the Cebu market was much smaller, and has included Cebu among a list of four new Southeast Asian destinations to be launched in its current financial year.

Previously, Andrew Harrison, chief executive advisor of GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp, had said the airport was also working to secure new long haul routes to Europe from Finnair and Turkish Airlines.

A new link with Australia is also a priority, with Brisbane being most likely the first Australian destination.

Mactan-Cebu also hopes PAL will resume service to Los Angeles, which it operated thrice weekly from March 2016 to March 2017.

"PAL has been considering potentially using its new fleet of A350s to resume Cebu-Los Angeles; however, it is somewhat reluctant to use the new aircraft type from Cebu because the market consists primarily of leisure passengers, whereas the configuration of its A350s has a premium focus. PAL’s 777-300ERs are less premium-focused, but are too large for the Cebu-Los Angeles route," CAPA said in its latest report.

In particular, China is a fast growing source market for tourism in Cebu and the Central Visayas.

CAPA said Cebu can expect five more China routes by early 2019.

Mactan-Cebu already has 12 routes to mainland China but China has less than half the capacity of Korea, although Korea has only four routes.

South Korea is the largest source market for the Philippines and the Central Visayas region, but China has been growing faster. Chinese visitor numbers to the Philippines increased by 43 percent in 2017 and another 44 percent in the first five months of 2018, while South Korean visitor numbers increased by 9 percent in 2017 and only 3 percent in the first five months of 2018.

Central Visayas visitor arrivals increased by 17 percent in 2017, outpacing the overall 11 percent increase for the Philippines.

Looking ahead, Harrison was optimistic that Mactan Airport will significantly grow its international traffic.

When GMR-Megawide took over the airport in 2014, international passenger traffic only at 1.5 million and that has doubled to 3.2 million today. The new MCIA Terminal 2 is expected to boost the airport's passenger capacity to at least 12.5 million passengers per annum.