CebuPac, Tiger passengers up 13.7%

MANILA, Philippines - Budget airlines Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific) and Tiger Airways Philippines of taipan John Gokongwei booked double-digit growth in passenger volume in the first two months of the year amid the launch of new domestic and international routes.

Cebu Pacific and Tigerair Philippines flew 2.75 million passengers in January and February this year or 13.7 percent higher compared to 2.42 million in the same period last year, data showed.

The airlines’ capacity however grew faster by 18.8 percent to 3.5 million from 2.95 million as its number of aircraft increased to 54 from 50 with the arrival of brand new aircraft under its $4 billion refleeting program.

This translated to a lower load factor of 78.4 percent in the first two months of the year from 81.9 percent in the same period last year.

Furthermore, number of flights went up by 14.1 percent to 21,219, during the period a year ago from18,502 despite the cancellations of several flights during the visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines from Jan. 15 to 19.

In 2014, the Gokongwei-led airlines flew 16.87 million passengers or 17.5 percent higher compared to 14.35 million. The number of flights went up by 6.9 percent to 122,994 from 115,005 as its fleet increased to 52 aircraft from 47.

In a presentation to analysts, Cebu Pacific and Tigerair Philippines said its share in the domestic market increased to 60.8 percent last year from 55.1 percent while that of national flag carrier Philippine Airlines Inc. and PAL Express of taipan Lucio Tan declined to 29.1 percent from 34.1 percent.

Likewise, Cebu Pacific cornered a 17.4 percent share in the international traffic in the first half of the year while the PAL Group dominated 27.6 percent.

Cebu Pacific launched long-haul flights to Dubai, Dammam, Kuwait, and Sydney last year while Tigerair Philippines launched eight domestic routes last year.

It has a fleet of 55 Airbus aircraft consisting of 10 A319, 31 A320, six A330, and eight ATR-72 500. It is scheduled to take delivery of seven more brand-new Airbus A320 and 30 Airbus A321neo aircraft between 2015 and 2021.

The airline’s net income jumped 66.7 percent to P853 million last year from P512 million in 2013 as total revenues surged 26.8 percent to P52 billion from P41 billion.

Passenger revenues went up by 26.9 percent to P40.19 billion from P31.66 billion while cargo revenues rose 20.6 percent to P3.14 billion from P2.61 billion driven by sustained demand for air travel and entry to new markets such as Japan, Middle East and Australia. 

Its core income jumped 76.8 percent to P3.32 billion from P1.88 billion despite booking P2.3 billion in fuel hedging losses.