Low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific Air’s net income went down to P4.334 billion for the past six months ended June 30, 2017, or 43.6% lower than the P7.682 billion recorded in the same period last year, owing to higher spending.
According to the company’s quarterly report to the Philippine Stock Exchange, operating expenses went up by 16.6% to P29.004 billion from last year’s P24.879 billion.The recent acquisition of aircraft to expand Cebu Pacific’s seat capacity also added to the increase in expenses.
The carrier noted the rise in fuel prices in 2017 as the primary reasonfor the higher expenditure, citing as well the weakening of the peso against the U.S. dollar as another factor for the profit drop.
As a result, operating income went down by 19.0% to P6.652 billion from P8.214 billion last year.
Meanwhile, group revenue grew to P35.656 billion for the first six months of 2017, or 7.7% higher than the P33.093 billion earned in the same period. Revenue was bolstered by the positive performance of passenger, cargo, and ancillary services.
Passenger revenue posted a 5.3% growth to P26.620 billion from P25.283 billion for the period January-June 2017.
Ancillary revenue went up 14.0%, a P854.393 billion growth from P6.110 billion to P6.975 billion, while cargo revenue grew by 21.9% to P2.071 billion from P1.700 billion.
Currently, Cebu Pacific serves 66 domestic routes and 38 international routes, withscheduled weekly flights totaling 2,597.
The carrier’s fleet is comprised of 61 aircraft including four Airbus A319, 36 Airbus A320, eight Airbus A330, eight ATR 72-500 aircraft, and five ATR 72-600 planes.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
