Cebu Pacific to start direct flights to Dubai in October

Cebu Pacific (CEB) announced Thursday it will begin operating direct flights between Manila and Dubai daily beginning October 7, 2013.

  

“We are interested in flying to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, anywhere with a big concentration of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs),” said Alex Reyes, CEB's general manager for the Long Haul Division. 

 

Seventy percent of passengers to Dubai take multiple stops since there are no direct flights to Dubai run by the home carrier.

 

With over 700,000 OFWs in UAE, the country is second to Saudi Arabia in terms of number of OFWs. Saudi Arabia has 1.5 million OFWs.

 

To launch its new service, CEB is offering discounted fares—over 3,000 seats to Dubai will be sold at P888 each, available from Jan. 17-20 or until seats last. These will be valid for travel from Oct. 7, 2013 to Jan. 15, 2014.

  

Flights to Dubai will leave Manila daily at 4:40 p.m. (Manila time). Flights from Dubai to Manila, on the other hand, will leave at 11:10 p.m. (Dubai time).

 

With this new service, Dubai has become CEB's first long haul destination.

  

CEB said the Manila-Dubai flights will be on Airbus A330-300 aircraft with more than 400 all-economy class seats.

 

“We target 80 percent load factor on our flights,” Reyes said. —KG, GMA News