Cebu Pac income jumps 213% to P2.1 B

MANILA, Philippines - Earnings of budget airline Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific) surged 213 percent in the first nine months of the year on the back of higher passenger volume.

Cebu Pacific reported yesterday that the airline’s net income amounted to P2.08 billion from January to September this year or P1.33 billion higher compared to last year’s P664.08 million.

The low cost carrier said revenues jumped by 25.7 percent to P38.45 billion in the first nine months of the year from P30.58 billion in the same period last year on the back of higher passenger and cargo revenues.

Passenger revenues grew 26 percent to P29.72 billion from P23.59 billion as volume of passengers grew 14.8 percent to 12.5 million in the first nine months form 10.9 million in the same period last year on the back of more flights with the arrival of more aircraft.

Cargo revenues also went up by 20.3 percent to P2.26 billion from P1.88 billion while ancillary revenues increased 26.4 percent to P6.46 billion from P5.11 billion.

The airline’s expenses went up 25.3 percent to P35.6 billion from P28.41 billion due to the launch of long haul services as well as the weakening of the peso to 44.26 to $1 from 42.07 to $1.

Flying operations expenses grew 22.5 percent to P19.61 billion from P16.01 billion as aviation fuel expenses grew 21.6 percent to P17.46 billion from P14.35 billion due to higher volume of fuel consumed.

The airline likewise incurred a foreign exchange loss of P193.2 million in the first nine months of the year due to the depreciation of the peso against the dollar.

 As of Sept. 30, Cebu Pacific operates an extensive route network serving 55 domestic routes and 35 international routes with a total of 2,270 scheduled weekly flights.

It operates from six hubs including the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3, Mactan-Cebu International Airport, Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) in Clark, Davao International Airport, Iloilo International Airport, and Kalibo International Airport in Aklan.