Cebu Pacific passenger traffic rose 58% in 2007 - official

Cebu Pacific (CEB) said the number of passengers it carried rose 58 percent to 5.49 million last year on the back of rising domestic and international traffic. The Gokongwei-led airline company surpassed its target of 5 million passengers last year. Of the total, domestic passengers accounted for 4.46 million, up 46.75 percent from 2006. It attributed the increase to the expansion of new route, such as Cebu-Kalibo, Cebu-Puerto Princesa, Cebu-Cagayan de Oro and Cebu-Butuan. Domestic passenger load factor rose from 74.89 percent to 82.59 percent. Candice Iyog, CEB vice president for marketing and product, said this makes Cebu Pacific the single largest domestic carrier in the country, offering the most routes, destinations and flights in the Philippines. In addition, international traffic increased by 140.77 percent to 1.03 million last year from 428,926 in 2006, as new destinations were introduced, including Jakarta, Taipei, Shanghai, Xiamen, Guangzhou and Macau. “We are so happy to have surpassed our goal to carry five million passengers in 2007. Our system-wide passenger load factor rose to 81.65 percent from 75.3 percent in 2006. This is a new milestone that will further encourage us to continue offering low fares, new planes and quality service," Iyog said. The airline company completed its refleeting program last year with 15 Airbus aircraft (10 A319 and 5 A320) and it expects the arrival of 10 brand-new aircraft (six ATRs and four A320s) in 2008 to service new domestic and international destinations. Cebu Pacific earlier got an approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise some P6.64 billion in net proceeds through its maiden offer scheduled this year. The proceeds will be used to buy Airbus and ATR. The company has appointed UBS Investment Bank as the sole international underwriter, sole book runner and lead manager for the offering and ING Bank N.V. and First Metro Investments Corp as joint domestic lead underwriters. “We are very proud of our average fleet age of 1.7 years and as we take delivery of 10 brand new aircraft this year, this will bring down the average even more, further strengthening our position as the airline with the youngest fleet in the Philippines," Iyog added. The country's budget carrier plans to fly new routes this year such as Davao-Iloilo; Davao-Hong Kong and Davao-Singapore direct. Also, it will add a second daily frequency to Singapore and will mount additional flights to Macau making it a daily service from Manila beginning June 2008. CEB flies to 12 international and 21 domestic destinations, including Caticlan starting February. It operates international flights in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the Mactan-Cebu International Airport. - GMANews.TV