CEBU, Philippines — Gokongwei-led low-cost airline Cebu Pacific (CEB) targets to resume all its domestic and international flights within the next two months.
By March this year, all CEB domestic routes as well as major international destinations covered by the airline before the pandemic, will resume operations, said CEB president and chief commercial officer Xander Lao during the airline’s national press briefing held January 25 at the Ayala Museum, Makati City.
CEB, which has restored 92 percent of its pre-COVID capacity since December 2022, will connect passengers to more places by increasing the frequencies to these international destinations.
While the airline’s officials expressed bullish projections of the effects of revenge travel on its business in bringing passengers domestically, and internationally, introducing new destinations is yet to be announced, what is important is to restore all its routes served prior to the pandemic.
“Our focus is really to bring back all the ones [flights] we had to suspend, that’s the priority,” explained Candice Iyog, Cebu Pacific’s Chief Marketing, and Customer Experience Officer.
Lao further explained that “there will be less of new destinations but rather more of connecting existing points together for this recovery year.”
“The year 2022 was really the year where we cautiously, optimistically rebuilt our network. In 2022 we flew close to 15 million passengers, compared to 3.3 million in 2021. Today, we are happy to say that we have now restored 100 percent of our pre-pandemic capacity. We are back!” Iyog announced.
Iyog expressed confidence that with the momentum now, “we expect significant growth coming from our international in 2023.”
The airline officials also reiterated the company’s commitment to supporting the revenge travel phenomenon by continuously offering unbeatable seat sales and reinstatement of all its international destinations.
“We are excited to welcome more passengers onboard, especially now that we are back to easier times. We are proud to announce that Cebu Pacific has emerged stronger after nearly three years of the pandemic and that we are ready to give our customers a better flying experience. And so, we confidently say—‘Let’s Fly, Every Juan’,” said Iyog.
CEB, the first airline in the country to offer promo fares that allowed every kind of Juan to travel to their dream vacations, ensures the affordability of its airfare in 2023. It will remain true to its commitment from 27 years ago to make every Juan fly, by offering seat sales to encourage travel across its widest domestic and international network.