The operator of Mactan-Cebu International Airport said three Chinese airlines will mount flights from two cities in China to Cebu this month, raising Cebu’s international network to 18 destinations.
“Promoting the province and its surrounding areas to other Asian countries, especially China, is among our highest priorities,” GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. president Louie Ferrer said.
“Studies have shown that China is the highest spending tourist market in the world. We want to bring this high-spending Chinese market to Cebu,” he said.
Ferrer said China Eastern and Juneyao Airlines would both commence flights between Cebu and Shanghai Pudong International Airport. China Eastern will have seven flights weekly in its first run from Oct. 18 to Oct. 28 and it will resume operations on Jan. 18, 2018.
Juneyao Airlines will commence thrice weekly flights on Oct. 30, while Okay Airways will launch thrice weekly flights to China’s historic city of Xi’an on Oct. 30, 2017.
Juneyao Airlines and Okay Airways are Mactan-Cebu International Airport’s newest Chinese airline partners. New routes to Beijing and Bangkok are also expected to be opened in the next two months.
By end October, MCIA will serve a total of 18 international destinations and 35 domestic destinations.
Ferrer said the company was also targeting new flights to North Asia, the Middle East, North America and Europe. MCIA will also open more domestic flights later in the year.
“We are very excited by these developments. As Cebu’s tourism grows, so will the airport. We are working round the clock to ensure that MCIA is capable of handling the increasing number of passengers this will bring,” Ferrer said.
GMCAC took over the operations of Mactan-Cebu International Airport on Nov. 1, 2014. At the time, MCIA had only seven international and 23 domestic destinations.
The construction of a new world-class passenger terminal building or MCIA Terminal 2 is slated to open in June 2018 and will increase passenger capacity to 12.5 million.
The terminal recorded a total of 8.9 million domestic and international passengers last year, up 12 percent from 7.98 million in 2015.
MCIA is targeting to hit 10 million passengers arrivals this year.