CEBU PACIFIC (Cebu Air, Inc.) will be opening a new destination in Australia next month as it looks to maintain its dominant market share of flights in the region.
In a statement on Tuesday, the local airline said it will be launching direct flights for passenger and cargo from Manila to Melbourne on Aug. 14.
“Bookings for our Manila-Melbourne-Manila service are healthy. The bookings comprise of travellers who want to visit Melbourne and Filipino-Australians who want to visit friends and relatives in various parts of the Philippines,” Cebu Pacific Vice President for Marketing Candice Jennifer A. Iyog said in the statement.
Its Manila-Melbourne route is the airlines’ second route going to Australia, after it launched flights to Sydney in 2014.
The Gokongwei-led carrier said tourism between the two countries has increased by an average of 16% as of April this year since it opened a Manila-Sydney route in 2014.
“The Philippines is fast gaining popularity among Australian travelers as a holiday destination, rivaling Bali and Thailand… Filipinos are among the largest immigrant groups in Australia, numbering about 300,000 as of 2017,” it added.
Cebu Pacific initially targeted to launch direct flights to Melbourne by June 2018. When the flights finally roll out next month, fares between the two locations are set to start at P9,539.
The listed operator of Cebu Pacific, Cebu Air, saw its first quarter earnings reach P1.437 billion, 12% higher than in the same period last year. It targets to fly 22 million passengers by the end of 2018, which is 12% higher than its record of 19.7 million passengers flown last year.
Cebu Air shares closed unchanged at P70 apiece on Tuesday. — Denise A. Valdez
