Asia Budget Airline Cebu Pacific Now 3rd Largest Low-Cost Carrier in the Region

Asia Budget Airline Cebu Pacific (CEB) is now Asia’s 3rd largest low-cost carrier and 22nd in the world, the Airline Business Magazine said.

CEB flew 6.7 million passengers in 2008—up 23% from 5.5 million the previous year—making it the fastest-growing Asia budget airline among the top 25 low-cost carriers world-wide in terms of passenger carriage and revenue passenger per kilometer, Airline Business said.

Cebu Pacific again broke its record for number of passengers in one month by carrying 823,419 passengers to 15 international cities and 31 domestic destinations.

“Our continued growth can be attributed to the increase in our seat capacity and trademark low fares, which are big factors especially during these difficult economic times,” CEB president and CEO Lance Gokongwei said.

“We expect to fly an estimated 9 million passengers this year as we expand our route network in the country and in Asia.

The public can expect that we will continue to offer our trademark low fares,” Gokongwei said.

Affordability has been a CEB trademark and the Asia budget airline has always been looking for ways to make flying more convenient and easier on the pocketbook.

It recently pioneered the all-inclusive fares, removing the “plus, plus,” to make the public immediately know how much needs to be paid for an airline ticket, and introduced the unparalleled ‘Go Lite’ fares that give discounts to travelers without check-in luggage.

CEB has the most number of inter-island routes and flight connections from its hubs in Clark, Manila, Cebu and Davao.

It flies to 31 domestic destinations and 15 international cities.

Now in its 14th year, CEB continues to have the youngest aircraft fleet in the Philippines, comprised of 11 Airbus A320, 10 Airbus A319, and eight ATR 72-500.

Cebu Pacific promo fares for other domestic routes are available at www.cebupacificair.com or through CEB reservations at 70-20-888 (Manila) / 230-8888 (Cebu).