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Elijah Felice Rosales - The Philippine Star
February 15, 2025 | 12:00am
The budget airline with the widest domestic reach among Philippine carriers has grown its route network by 19 percent to 124 as of January from 104 a year ago.
STAR / File
MANILA, Philippines — Cebu Pacific has expanded its flight coverage to an industry-leading 124 routes, as the airline widens its domestic and international reach in response to the demand boom.
The budget airline with the widest domestic reach among Philippine carriers has grown its route network by 19 percent to 124 as of January from 104 a year ago.
Cebu Pacific’s domestic coverage has jumped to 84 routes across the archipelago, offering a combined 2,912 flights per week in its Manila and regional hubs.
On the other hand, its international portfolio has gone up to 40 routes, operating 648 flights per week to cities overseas.
Cebu Pacific president and chief commercial officer Alexander Lao is positive that the airline is on track to record another year of growth.
“Cebu Pacific’s network now covers 124 routes, up from 104 in the same period last year. Load factors remain healthy, with international travel demand notably outpacing our capacity growth,” Lao said.
In January, the airline owned by the Gokongweis increased its passenger traffic by a third to 2.6 million on the demand spillover from the holiday season.
Cebu Pacific pulled off a load factor – measured as seats booked against total capacity – of 86.5 percent, as travelers took advantage of the carrier’s added frequency and new routes.
The most notable expansion for Cebu Pacific in January was its launch of direct flights between Manila and Sapporo, making it the lone airline connecting the two cities.
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL), for its part, is becoming more assertive with its expansion in Cebu. PAL will offer direct flights between Cebu and Ho Chi Minh starting May 2 to become the only carrier serving the route.
The flight will take off thrice a week based on initial schedule, and PAL is assigning a 199-seater Airbus A321 for the route. The airline is also scaling up its Manila-Hanoi flights to a daily basis by April to cater to the growing interest among Filipinos to visit Vietnam.
Recently, PAL has placed more domestic and overseas flights in Cebu to offer travelers from Visayas a cheaper and quicker way to go to certain destinations.
The airline reopened its Cebu flights to Osaka before 2024 ended, and will introduce a new route in Catarman and boost weekly flights to Siargao beginning March.
