Air traffic up 9.5% to 21.73M in H1

MANILA, Philippines - Air passenger traffic rose by almost double digits in the first half of the year amid the continued increase in the number of foreign and domestic tourists, data from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) showed.

Volume of airline passengers grew 9.5 percent to 21.73 million from January to June this year compared to 19.84 million in the same period last year.

CAB reported that the number of domestic airline passengers surged 15.32 percent to 12.42 million in the first half of the year from 10.77 million in the same period last year while the number of foreign passengers rose by 2.6 percent to 9.31 million from 9.07 million.

CAB executive director Carmelo Arcilla said in an interview that air traffic in the Philippines has been recovering from the flat growth last year amid the reforms being implemented by the Aquino administration.

Except for 2013, Arcilla said air traffic in the country has been growing by double-digit levels since 2005.

“It (air traffic) has been growing at double digits before except for last year which was flat. We are reaping the benefits of the deregulated policy adopted by the Aquino administration,” he said.

Budget airline Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific) dominated the domestic market after flying 5.82 million passengers in the first half of the year followed by PAL Express with 2.77 million, national flag carrier Philippine Airlines Inc. (PAL) with 1.98 million, AirAsia Zest with 1.06 million, and Tiger Airways Philippines with 575,093.

PAL dominated the international market after flying 2.5 million passengers from January to June this year followed by Cebu Pacific with 1.62 million, AirAsia Zest with 377,198, Tigerair Philippines with 104,467, and PAL Express with 77,309.