Cebu Air Inc., the operator of Cebu Pacific and Cebgo, said Tuesday net income surged 115.7 percent in the first half from a year ago on the back of higher passenger and cargo revenues.
The airline carrier led by the Gokongwei family said it earned P7.14 billion from January to June, up from P3.31 billion it booked in the same period last year.
Revenues rose 18.2 percent in the six-month period to P44.70 billion from P37.84 billion in the same period last year. Passenger revenues went up by 17.8 percent to P33.35 billion from P28.30 billion.
Cebu Pacific attributed the growth to the 8.8-percent increase in average fare to P2,974 this year from P2,734 a year ago.
Passenger volume increased 8.3 percent to 11.213 million from 10.354 million last year as the group added bigger A321 aircraft to its fleet.
Cargo revenues increased 6.9 percent to P2.84 billion from P2.65 billion following the increase in both volume and yield of cargo.
Operating expenses rose 8.2 percent to P35.772 billion from P33.06 billion last year.
“The increase was driven by its expanded operations, growth in seat capacity from the acquisition of new aircraft and the weakening of the Philippine peso against the US dollar,” the company said.
The peso averaged 52.20 against the greenback in the first six months, compared to 51.98 per dollar last year based on the Philippine Dealing and Exchange Corp.’s weighted average rates.
Flying operations expenses increased 4.6 percent to P15.201 billion from P14.52 billion incurred in the same period last year. “This was largely attributable to the increase in pilot training costs,” the company said.
Fuel expenses slightly increased as fuel volume went up 8.3 percent while the average published fuel MOPS price eased to $78 per barrel this year from $84 a barrel in 2018.