Cebu Pacific said Thursday it is seeing “green shoots” as travel demand gradually picks up following the easing of quarantine restrictions.
“We’re definitely seeing green shoots, but we are cautiously optimistic. In the fourth quarter we will see ramping up of operations and hopefully simplifications of these travel requirements,” said Candice Iyog, vice president for marketing and customer experience at Cebu Pacific in a virtual briefing.
“Passenger loads have been improving gradually… The good news why we are seeing green shoots is we’ve started to see load factor improve in the past week or since the announcement of GCQ and granular lockdown, wherein the loads is mid 50 percent but [still below] the 85 percent pre-pandemic level,” she said.
Iyog said there would be no reduction on its fleet as the airline has the “right size,” for current operations. The company has 73 aircraft.
Iyog said despite the growing optimism, it is “still tough” for the airline industry because of the pandemic.
“We are not yet out of the woods . We need to continue to do these things to make sure that we have a longer runway for ourselves,” she said.
Cebu Pacific said it would ramp up local and international operations staring next month.
“We’re excited and looking forward to flying more and supporting the domestic tourism because we all know, domestic tourism will be leading the recovery process for us, and we’re doing everything we can to support this,” Iyog said.
The airline in October will expand flights to Siargao from five times to six times weekly; raise frequencies to Boracay from four to five times daily; and bump up flights to Bohol from nine to 10 times weekly.
“Aside from our domestic recovery and part of our commitment as a national flag carrier is to fly to international destinations where Filipinos are. Currently, we operate flights to nine international destinations starting in October,” she said.
For international destinations, Cebu Pacific will resume daily flights to Dubai on Sept. 30. For Japan, Cebu Pacific will fly twice weekly to Nagoya starting Oct. 2 and Osaka on Oct. 4 and resume flights to Fukuoka on Nov. 5.
Cebu Pacific will also restart flights to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on Oct. 4.