The Board of Investments approved the P6.1-billion air transport project of Cebu Air Inc. under the public infrastructure and logistics activity of the 2017 Investment Priorities Plan.
The project, which received fiscal incentives, involves the acquisition of one Airbus 330 (A330) aircraft on a finance lease scheme with Airbus SAS France to add to its current fleet of 58 aircraft.
Cebu Air, which operates budget carrier Cebu Pacific, now has four A319s, 36 A320s, eight A330s and eight ATR 72-500s and three ATR 72-600s.
The A319 and A320 are short-to-medium range commercial passenger aircraft manufactured by Airbus and with a maximum passenger capacity of 156 and 180, respectively.
The A330 is a long range, twin aisle commercial passenger aircraft manufactured by Airbus with a maximum passenger capacity of 436, while the ATR is a twin-turboprop commercial passenger single-class aircraft.
Cebu Air’s new aircraft started to fly commercially in May servicing the Manila-Incheon (South Korea)-Manila and Manila-Bangkok (Thailand)-Manila routes and adding 186 new jobs to the current 3,400 personnel.
“The growth of the air transport industry remains robust. This will allow Cebu Pacific to further expand its operation as a major budget carrier, stimulating passenger traffic growth with more affordable fares from these strategic routes. More tourists in Asian countries especially from Korea are expected to come in with this new project,” said Trade Undersecretary and BoI managing head Ceferino Rodolfo.
South Korea is the largest source of foreign tourists to date with 686,630 arrivals in the first five months of the year and a market share of 24 percent, figures from the Tourism Department show.
Korea registered 128,691 arrivals in May, up 36 percent a year ago, while Thailand had over 20,000 tourists. Korea has been steadily sending over 100,000 visitors monthly up to May since the start of 2017.
Around 2.9 million foreign visitors arrived in the first five months of 2017, up 14.4 percent from 2.5 million year-on-year.
Asia accounted for over 60 percent of the visitor volume or 1,750,419 arrivals. Visitor arrivals from the continent reached 532,757, up nearly 20 percent from a year ago.