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ARRIVING
passengers, majority of them tourists and a lot of
balikbayans, toward the Christmas holidays increased by
nearly 20 percent last year over 2006 while overall
international passenger traffic in 2007, which includes
outbound, grew by almost 11 percent to 11.23 million
from 10.13 million the previous year.
The
Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) reported 30 airlines
transported the 11.24 million outbound and inbound
passengers during the period, with Philippine Airlines
(PAL) carrying the most number or 2.38 million, of which
1.8 million were bound overseas.
Of the
total traffic, 5.8 million were outbound and 5.43
million inbound. In 2006 arriving passengers reached
4.56 million, with 5.26 million outbound.
Cebu
Pacific carried 1.02 million passengers both ways
because it only has 12 international destinations. PAL
has 25 destinations, mostly among domestic airlines.
Asian
Spirit had 8,052 international passengers versus the
5,810 last year.
Foreign
carriers Cathay Pacific Airways carried 1.33 million
passengers last year; Singapore Airlines, 537,362;
Northwest Airlines, 497,916; Japan Airlines, 435,429;
Emirates Air, 448,482; and Korean Air, 414,319.
The CAB
also reported that domestic passenger traffic in 2007
grew by 22.7 percent to 10.39 million from 8.47 million
in 2006, aided by aggressive pricing strategies of the
competing carriers.
Cebu
Pacific carried 4.45 million domestic passengers and PAL
transported 4.03 million. Air Philippines had 1.17
million domestic passengers; Asian Spirit, 484,482; and
Seair, 245,020.
Air
Philippines is 99-percent owned by the Lucio Tan Group,
which also owns 95 percent of PAL.
In
total, the country’s domestic load factor in 2007 stood
at 78 percent from 73 percent in 2006. The number of
seats allocated during the period also increased to
13.34 million from 11.61 million. Cargo also rose to
142.7 million kg last year as against 132.64 million kg
a year earlier. |
