PHILIPPINE budget airline Cebu Pacific (CEB) posted a 12% growth in passenger volume in the third quarter of the year on the back of a 22% jump in international passenger traffic.
From July to September, CEB flew a total of 2.8 million passengers compared to the same period last year’s 2.5 million passengers. Of the total 2,129,000 million were domestic passengers and 660,000, international.
System-wide load factor for the quarter was 84%.
This brings the total traffic for the first eight months of the year to 8.7 million passengers, on track for the airline’s 2011 target of 12 million.
Domestic load factor was 85% for the third quarter from last year’s 83%.
Passengers to and from Taiwan grew 60% year-on-year; Vietnam, 56%; and South Korea, 58%. CEB now flies from both Manila and Cebu to Incheon and Busan.
“The number of CEB passengers grew faster than CEB’s seat capacity in Q3 2011, so we are very happy with our growth on a traditionally lean travel season domestically.
“We expect these figures to surge further upward with long holidays, more flights, and four new Airbus A320 aircraft that enter into service in the fourth quarter of this year,” said CEB vice president for marketing and distribution Candice Iyog.
“We just opened two new domestic routes, and announced additional international flights starting January 2012.”
CEB operates 10 Airbus A319s, 17 Airbus A320s and 8 ATR-72 500s. By yearend, it will operate a fleet of 37 aircraft. Between 2012 and 2021, the airline will take delivery of 23 Airbus A320s and 30 Airbus A321neos. Two Airbus A320s will be on operating lease agreements.
