Cebu Pacific to fly to Taipei

MANILA, Philippines - Publicly-listed budget airline Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific)  is expanding its Cebu hub with the addition of the Cebu-Taipei flights.

Candice Iyog, vice president for marketing and distribution of Cebu Pacific, said in a statement that direct flights between Cebu and Taiwan would start on July 5 to boost tourism and trade between the two trading partners.

 â€œCebu Pacific believes this new route will open up tourism and trade opportunities between the Philippines and Taiwan, and provide tourists with the lowest fare alternative on the most extensive network in the Philippines,” Iyog stressed.

The new route between Cebu and Taipei would be every Monday and Friday.

Aside from Taipei, the budget airline also flies direct to Hong Kong, Singapore, Pusan, Incheon, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur using its Cebu hub. It also services 22 domestic destinations through its Cebu operations.

Taiwan is one of Asia’s most unique destinations, with top attractions including the Sun Moon Lake, the Alishan National Scenic Area, and the National Palace Museum.

Aside from Cebu, Cebu Pacific also operates five other hubs in Manila, Clark, Davao, Iloilo, and Kalibo.

Cebu Pacific has a fleet of 43 aircraft consisting of 25 Airbus A320, 10 A319 aircraft and eight ATR 72-500 aircraft.

The airline would take delivery of 17 more Airbus A320 and 30 Airbus A321neo aircraft orders between 2013 and 2021 and is slated to begin long-haul services in the third quarter of the year through direct flights to Dubai.

It booked a double-digit 11 percent growth in volume of passengers to 13.26 million last year from 11.93 million in 2011 on the back of robust domestic and international operations brought about by aggressive sales promotions last year.

Cebu Pacific booked a net income of P3.57 billion last year or 1.5 percent lower than the P3.624 billion recorded in 2011. Last year’s income decline was slower compared to 2011 when the airline’s net income plunged 47.6 percent to P3.624 billion from P6.922 billion in 2010 due to a sharp rise in operating expenses.

Revenues grew 11.7 percent to P37.9 billion last year from P33.93 billion in 2011 on the back of higher passenger as well as cargo revenues. Passenger services account for 85.1 percent of total revenues while cargo services cornered 6.3 percent.