Monday, January 28, 2008

Cebu Pacific outflanks PAL in local routes

IT’S official. Cebu Pacific carried more domestic passenger last year, overtaking close rival Philippine Airlines (PAL), the Civil Aeronautical Board (CAB) said.
Data from CAB showed that the Gokongwei-owned airline carried 4.56 million domestic passengers with a load factor of 83 percent last year, as against PAL’s 4.03 million passengers and 79-percent load factor. Air Philippines carried 1.17 million domestic passenger while Asian Spirit served 484,482. Newcomer Southeast Asian Airlines (Seair) flew 221,960 people as of November last year.
The industry’s increasing load factor reflects a steady growth in passenger demand in the country.
For the fourth quarter alone, Cebu Pacific flew 1.13 million passengers and PAL another 1.06 million.
Candice Iyog, Cebu Pacific vice-president for marketing and products, said this makes the airline the single largest domestic carrier in the country, offering the most routes, destinations and flights in the Philippines.
“This is a new milestone that will further encourage us to continue offering low fares, new planes and quality service,” Iyog said.
For its part, PAL said it had a 53.8-percent market share last year compared with Cebu Pacific’s 46.2 percent share.
The PAL-Air Philippines alliance led in terms of seating capacity, with 6.46 million seats flown on 31 domestic routes.
In terms of cargo operations, PAL carried 62.67 million kilograms during the period followed by Cebu Pacific, 54.16 million; Air Philippines, 12 million; and Pacific East Asia Cargo, 9.8 million.

No comments: