Cebu Pacific readies return to pre-pandemic workforce

MANILA, Philippines — Budget carrier Cebu Pacific expects its headcount to return to pre-pandemic level by early next year to cater to travel demand amid the easing of travel restrictions.

“I would guess by early next year, we would be back to where we were in 2019 in terms of headcount,” Cebu Pacific president and CEO Lance Gokongwei told reporters in a chance interview.

He said the airline’s total pre-pandemic headcount covering flight crew, pilots, customer service personnel, head office, maintenance and engineers was at around 4,000.

As of the end of last year, the airline has 3,046 permanent full-time employees.

“Now that we are seeing business come back, we anticipated that and we are recruiting both pilots and cabin crew and other customer-facing employees,” Gokongwei said.

In hiring employees, the airline is prioritizing those who were laid off due to the pandemic.

“We made a commitment to our people that we will prioritize them when business came back. That is what we’re trying to do,” Gokongwei said.

He said removal of testing requirements and opening of borders have helped bring back travelers.

“Domestic (flights) we are back. We are pretty much flying what we did pre-COVID,” he said.

In terms of international flights, he said the airline sees opportunity in North Asian destinations.

“We think Japan will open up soon. And then after that, early next year, hopefully Hong Kong, China, and Macau,” he said.

While the airline has been tremendously affected by the rising fuel prices, and in turn, has to adjust its fares to reflect the increasing costs, he said the company is trying to mitigate this as much as possible.

He also said the airline would continue  to offer attractive fares.

“We’re still getting people to go back to the habit of planning ahead their vacations,” he said.

He said people used to plan for trips six months or one year ahead, but due to the pandemic, travelers are now making plans two weeks or one month ahead.

“So, we will continue to have these very attractive fares because again, part of our reason for being is to bring, to adjust behavior, to enable them to be confident again in traveling,” he said.