‘New year, no change in airfares’

MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos will enter the new year paying roughly the same for flight tickets, with the government deciding to keep fuel surcharge unchanged for the fourth consecutive month.

In an advisory, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) announced it is retaining the fuel surcharge at Level 4 in January 2025, making it the fourth straight month at that rate.

CAB has lowered the fuel surcharge to Level 4 since October, the lowest it reached this year, and has kept it that way throughout the fourth quarter.

Based on CAB’s matrix, Level 4 means airlines can collect a fuel surcharge of P117 to P342 for domestic flights, depending on distance. Moreover, they can slap a fuel surcharge of P385.7 and P2,867.82 for international flights.

As protocol, carriers wishing to impose the fuel surcharge have to submit an application to CAB before January. The agency set an exchange rate of P58.66 to $1 for airlines operating in foreign currencies.

According to the International Air Transport Association’s tracker, jet fuel prices have decreased by 0.5 percent to $90.04 per barrel as of Dec. 20 from a month ago.

Airlines are allowed to collect fuel surcharge voluntarily to recover petroleum costs arising from price fluctuations in the international market.

CAB determines the fuel surcharge based on the monthly average of jet fuel, and may increase or reduce it depending on price movements.

Philippine air travel will gain from lower fuel prices next year, as airlines expect flight demand to go further upward.

Low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific, for one, is ending 2024 reaching an all-time high, surpassing the 80,000 mark for passengers flown in a single day last week.

Likewise, Cebu Pacific is keeping its foot on the gas in terms of fleet and network expansion. By Jan. 16, 2025, the airline will fly direct between Manila and Sapporo, bridging the two cities thrice a week, every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Similarly, flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) sees air travel expanding in 2025, and is betting on the potential of aviation hubs outside of Metro Manila to support growth.

Recently, PAL has restored direct flights between Cebu and Osaka to capture the steady demand for business and leisure travel to Japan.