Cebu Pacific keeps lead in passenger load

MANILA, Philippines - Asia’s third-largest low-cost carrier, Cebu Pacific (CEB) has maintained its significant lead over other airlines in terms of the number of domestic passengers carried in the first half of 2010, as per Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) figures.

CEB flew a total of 4,088,493 domestic passengers in the first semester of 2010, which is 1.2 million more than Philippine Airlines’ 2,882,102 domestic passengers. This translates to a year-on-year growth of 13 percent for CEB.

The airline first claimed the top domestic carrier spot last year when it captured up to 50 percent of the domestic market share. It remains the number one carrier in 2010, with 48.75-percent domestic market share according to CAB. It started operations only in 1996.

Because of this, CEB announced a 50-percent off seat sale to any of its 33 domestic and 16 international destinations from Sept. 4-5, 2010 or until seats last, for travel from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30, 2010.

“We hope to carry even more passengers as we expect delivery of four more brand-new Airbus aircraft from October 2010 to January 2011. Twenty more brand-new Airbus aircraft will be delivered until 2014. We will use all these to add more frequencies, routes and flights to lower our fares even further and provide even more travel convenience to guests,” said CEB VP for Marketing and Distribution Candice Iyog.

CEB operates an extensive network, including Boracay (Caticlan), Puerto Princesa, Dumaguete, Cebu, Davao and Bacolod, among others. It flies 30 direct domestic flights from Manila, 19 direct flights from Cebu, five direct flights from Davao, and one flight from Clark.