Cebu Pacific to fly to US, Europe

MANILA, Philippines - Budget airline Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific) will soon mount direct flights to Europe and the United States.

In a press conference at the office of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) yesterday, EU Chargè d’ Affaires Julian Vassallo said they lifted the ban imposed on Cebu Pacific in 2010.

The US Federal Aviation Administration also announced that the Philippines has regained its Category 1 status after being downgraded to Category 2 in January 2008, which prevented Philippine carriers from mounting additional flights to the US.

The Gokongwei-owned Cebu Pacific is the second Philippine carrier to be allowed to enter the European airspace after Philippine Airlines.

Vasallo said the European Commission (EC) has unanimously decided to remove Cebu Pacific from the EU Safety List.

“The EC is likely to mount another EU assessment mission to the country later in the year  to assess Philippine aviation as whole, including internal aviation, with the prospect to lift the ban on Philippine aviation as a whole,” he said.

Filipinos in Europe

Cebu Pacific president Lance Gokongwei said the lifting of the EU ban would allow the budget airline to serve close to one million Filipinos living and working in Europe.

“This network is about to get even bigger,” he said.

He said the company has yet to decide on the European routes that would be served by the budget airline, but London, Paris and Amsterdam are possibilities.

Cebu Pacific is scheduled to take delivery of 50 Airbus aircraft to beef up its existing fleet of 51 aircraft up to 2021. Gokongwei said the airline is studying its current fleet as the Airbus A330 could only fly from nine to 11 hours.

On Jan. 28, Cebu Pacific informed the Directorate General for Mobility and Transport of the EU in Brussels that the carrier has complied with all its outstanding aviation safety concerns.

The Air Safety Committee meeting of the EU was held on March 26.

Gokongwei said Cebu Pacific operates a safe airline despite an incident at the Davao International Airport and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport involving two of its aircraft last June.

The EC imposed a ban on Philippine carriers in March 2010 after CAAP failed to reform the country’s civil aviation system as mandated by the International Civil Aviation Organization. – With Pia Lee-Brago