CEBU Pacific on Tuesday said it carried almost 2.8 million passengers from July to September this year, which brings to over 8.7 million passengers flown since the start of the year. With this, the airline said it is on track to hit its 12 million target passengers for 2011.

The airline said it posted a 12-percent system-wide year-on-year growth in the third quarter, largely due to a 22-percent increase in the number of international passengers. The airline’s domestic passengers also increased with an 85-percent load factor in the same period, compared with 83 percent posted in the same period in 2010, even if July to September are considered lean travel months in the Philippines.

The airline flew almost 660,000 international and more than 2,129,000 domestic passengers in the third quarter, compared with almost 2.5 million passengers in the same period a year ago.

“The number of passengers grew faster than out seat capacity in the third quarter, so we are very happy with our growth on a traditionally lean travel season domestically. We expect these figures to surge further upward with long holidays, more flights and four new Airbus A320 aircraft that enter into service in the fourth quarter of this year,” said Cebu Pacific Vice President for marketing and distribution Candice Iyog.