BUDGET carrier Cebu Pacific is seeking to operate flights to Taipei and Kaohsiung out of secondary airports in the Philippines.
In a letter to the Civil Aeronautics Board, Cebu Pacific External Affairs Manager Mary Rose Grace Donato-Lim said her airline is seeking the allocation of additional 5,850 weekly entitlements from the recently bagged entitlements from Taiwan.
The airline requested for 1,260 seat entitlements each for flights to Taipei out of Clark, Puerto Princesa, Tagbilaran and Davao. It also sought for the same allocation for the Cebu-Kaohsiung route.
Donato-Lim cited the country’s air-services contract with the Chinese territory that provides for unlimited frequency on any point of the Philippines—excluding Manila—to any point in Taiwan. “These requests are in addition to the 450 entitlements already allocated to Cebu Pacific and shall be used to operate scheduled flights services to the said routes,” she added.
The official added that her airline has capacity to operate the aforementioned services, citing the carrier’s fleet of six A330s, 26 A320s, 10 A319s and eight ATRs.
“We are confident that with our signature low fares will grow the Taiwan market and bring tourists and our fellow overseas Filipinos straight to our prime tourist destinations through our secondary gateways,” Donato-Lim said.
Cebu Air Inc. saw profits rise by more than two-thirds in the first semester of 2015, thanks to the savings generated from decline in the price of jet fuel. The operator of budget carrier Cebu Pacific booked P5.2 billion in net profits in the first six months of the year, a 63.6-percent increase from P3.18 billion a year ago.
In the same comparative periods, the company registered 10.4-percent increase in revenues to P29.51 billion and a 1.2-percent decline in operating expenses to P23.47 billion.
The robust top line was fueled by the increase in passenger, ancillary, and cargo revenues generated during the period. Cebu Pacific and sister airline Cebgo flew 9.2 million passengers during the six-month period, 8.2 percent more versus the 8.5 million customers in 2014.