New Cebu Pacific route to boost Siargao tourism

CEBU, Philippines - After low cost airline Cebu Pacific (CEB) recently launched its thrice a week service from Cebu to Siargao Island in Surigao del Norte, local government units in the Mindanao province eyes a boost of its tourism activities as now more domestic and foreign tourists will have a faster alternative for travel.

The new route also paved way to the re-opening of the small Siargao airport in the municipality of Del Carmen, said its mayor Constantino Navarro IV in an interview during the Siargao- Cebu inaugural flight last Wednesday.

“Months ago, another low cost airline was flying in this route but it went off due to low passenger volume. But with this new route of Cebu Pacific, we are looking at bringing more tourists to Siargao so that they can participate in our three international sporting events like the International Women’s Surfing this April, International Game Fishing this May and the Men’s International Surfing Competition this September,” said Navarro.

Even the congressman of the first district of Surigao del Norte Francisco Matugas eyes positive prospects with the re-opening of the Cebu-Siargao route.

Matugas said that Siargao Island thrives on tourism and their tourism products are starting to peak in the world market however their major limitations consist of transportation and the new route will be a way to address this problem.

“We are grateful for the first commercial flight of Cebu Pacific to Siargao Island because this will further enhance and boost our tourism landscape and stimulate job employment. Siargao is a popular destination for surfers and we are so far developing this destination for another activity called game fishing,” said the congressman.

Matugas announced that to boost up flights going to Siargao, a new terminal will be put up and its runway will be extended to accommodate bigger planes and a fund of P20 million has already been released for this project.

Airport manager Gina Villamor said that other airline companies have come to her office with proposed interests to operate in the route but since they have limited capacity in their terminal shed, they were not able to accommodate all of them.

Currently, CEB is the only airline flying to the Cebu-Siargao route and this service operates every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the flight departs from Cebu at 10:45 am and arrives in Siargao at 11:55am while the return flight leaves at 12:45pm and reaches to Cebu at 1:25pm.— Rhia de Pablo