No China expansion on table for Cebu Pacific

MANILA, Philippines — Low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific may be adding new routes almost every week to its flight network, but there is one destination that it is hesitant to expand to for now: China.

Cebu Pacific president and chief commercial officer Alexander Lao thinks it will be better for the airline to stay off China this year and redeploy its aircraft elsewhere.

Lao said demand for air travel in China has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels, forcing the airline to indefinitely shelve its plan to return to Beijing.

Cebu Pacific will also bring down its flight frequency to China to as few as six per week during the winter starting December. The airline owned by the Gokongweis used to operate as many as 21 flights to China prior to the pandemic.

“We will make formal announcements (for our Beijing return) but we are suspending that until further notice. We are not operating in Xiamen and Shenzhen this winter as part of our pivot and you would see that in our announcements,” Lao said.

For now, Lao said the focus of Cebu Pacific is to explore expansion outside of China, as shown in its decision to enter into a third city in Vietnam through Da Nang, launch weekly connections to Kaohsiung and mount direct flights to Chiang Mai.

Still, Cebu Pacific maintains a few trips in its flight network to China, particularly to Guangzhou (thrice a week), Shanghai (four times a week) and Xiamen (twice a week).

Globally, Lao said the aviation industry has yet to see the travel numbers that it used to pull from China, compelling even the largest airlines like Qantas to pull out of the mainland.

Lao also recognized the geopolitical tensions hounding the bilateral ties between the Philippines and China. The countries are struggling to find a mutual ground on how to resolve their maritime dispute in the West Philippine Sea, and this is worsened by Chinese attacks on Filipino fishermen and patrols in the area.

“We hope that the Chinese market will recover, as it is an important pillar in our inbound tourism numbers, but we have to be pragmatic as well considering the existing relationships between the Philippines and China. It is better suited maybe for us to redeploy our assets elsewhere and cater to demand where we see it,” Lao said.

In 2019, China is the largest source of foreign visitors to the Philippines, accounting for at least a fifth, or 1.74 million, of the 8.26 million total.

Airline expert Centre for Aviation believes the Chinese market will only return to pre-pandemic levels by 2025, citing slow recovery and geopolitical issues.