Cebu Pacific Air announced on Wednesday the suspension of three flights to the Middle East which are no longer commercially viable.
Cebu Pacific said it would suspend its service to and from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Kuwait; and Doha, Qatar starting June.
The airline will fly the last of its four-times-a-week service from Manila to Kuwait on June 13 and its Kuwait-Manila flight on June 14, 2017.
The thrice-weekly Manila-Doha-Manila route will have its last flight on July 1, while Cebu Pacific’s last flight from Manila to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will depart on July 2.
The Riyadh-Manila flight will leave on July 3.
“The entry of Cebu Pacific into these markets benefitted passengers with lower fares and more choices. Of late, other carriers have aggressively added more flights, which has resulted in substantial oversupply of seats and fares that are so low, hence making the routes unsustainable,” Cebu Pacific vice president for corporate affairs JR Mantaring said.
“We have to continuously review our routes to ensure their viability. At this point, it makes more sense for us to re-deploy the aircraft used for our Riyadh, Doha and Kuwait service to routes where we can further stimulate demand and sustain our low fare offers,” he said.
Cebu Pacific will retain its other long-haul services to and from Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and Sydney, Australia, with a view to increasing frequencies to these destinations in the future.
The airline also flies to 24 other international destinations across Asia and USA; as well as 37 domestic destinations.
“Passengers affected by the suspension of CEB service in Doha, Riyadh and Kuwait are being contacted,” Cebu Pacific said.
“Options are being provided to minimize the disruption, which include rebooking passengers on flights with other airlines or on earlier travel dates with CEB; a full refund; or placing the full value of the ticket in a travel fund for future use,” it said.
From January to March, Cebu Pacific carried 4.8 million passengers, of which 1.3 million flew international destinations. Total revenues in the first quarter went up 4.7 percent to P16.9 billion.
“However, this was outpaced by the growth in expenses, driven by a weaker peso versus the US Dollar and rising fuel prices,” Cebu Pacific said.
Cebu Pacific’s net income went down 68 percent in the first quarter to P1.28 billion from P4.04 billion a year ago.
