CAB oks CEB fuel charge

MANILA, Philippines - The Civil Aviation Board (CAB) has approved the application of Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific) of taipan John Gokongwei to impose fuel charges to all passengers flying to Malaysia and Thailand.

The CAB has given Cebu Pacific the greenlight to impose a $30 fuel charge on its international passenger tickets from Cebu to Kuala Lumpur and $35 for those taking the Cebu to Bangkok flights.

The airline is set to begin direct services from Cebu to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur in the first week of December this year.

Cebu Pacific is set to launch twice weekly flights from Cebu to Bangkok starting Dec. 8 and twice weekly flights from Cebu to Kuala Lumpur starting Dec. 9.

“We are proud to launch two new international services from our Cebu hub. We look forward to providing our services to foreign tourists and overseas Filipino workers and ultimately boosting trade and tourism between Cebu, Thailand, and Malaysia,” Cebu Pacific vice president for marketing and distribution Candice Iyog said.

To introduce the new routes, Cebu Pacific undertook a seat sale wherein passengers could buy P888 seats from Cebu to Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur for travel from Dec. 8 to Feb. 28 next year.

It currently operates four international services from Cebu namely: Cebu to Hong Kong, Incheon (Korea), Pusan (Korea), and Singapore.

The low cost carrier operates 20 direct domestic flights from Cebu, namely Cebu to Manila, Bacolod, Busuanga, Cagayan de Oro, Caticlan, Clark, Davao, Dipolog, Dumaguete, General Santos, Iloilo, Legazpi, Ozamiz, Pagadian, Puerto Princesa, Siargao, Surigao, Tacloban and Zamboanga.

Cebu Pacific currently operates 10 Airbus A319, 21 Airbus A320 and 8 ATR-72 500 aircraft. Its fleet of 39 aircraft – with an average age of 3.6 years – is the largest aircraft fleet in the Philippines.

Between 2012 and 2021, Cebu Pacific would take delivery of 21 more Airbus A320 and 30 Airbus A321neo aircraft orders. It is slated to begin long-haul services in the 3rd quarter of 2013.

The airline provides access to the most extensive network in the Philppines, with 32 domestic and 19 international destinations.