Friday, August 08, 2008 Cebu Pacific to increase flights in C. Mindanao
BUDGET carrier Cebu Pacific Air Inc. is set to serve the route from General Santos City to Cebu City starting August 15, the company said.
Cebu Pacific's move to service the GenSan-Cebu path will give Philippine Airlines's low cost carrier PAL Express a competition. PAL Express has been servicing the route on a daily basis since May.
Candice Iyog, Cebu Pacific spokesperson, said they will service the GenSan-Cebu route every Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
It will depart from Cebu at 10:30 a.m. and arrives in GenSan at 11:30 a.m. It leaves General Santos City at noon and arrives in Cebu at 1:10 p.m.
"We will continue to expand our operations and offer the lowest 'all-inclusive' fares especially to new CEB routes that have not been previously exposed to our low fares," Iyog said.
From August 15 to November 30, 2008, Cebu Pacific offers an "all-in" airfare of only P999, but the seat sale has already elapsed last week, a company statement said.
Cebu Pacific's looming GenSan-Cebu flight comes fresh on the firm's operation expansion in General Santos City.
Last July 11, the Gokongwei-owned air carrier increased its flight frequency from GenSan to Manila.
On top of its daily flights in the afternoon since October 2006, Cebu Pacific added morning flights to Manila and back here in the mornings every Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, departing Manila at 8:55 a.m. and leaving back at 9:25 a.m.
Flag-carrier PAL has been servicing daily flights to Manila from General Santis City in the past several years in a morning schedule.
Iyog said that Cebu Pacific would also increase its flight frequency from Manila to Cotabato City, which is also part of Central Mindanao region, from five times a week to daily, also starting on August 15.
General Santos, the economic hub of Central Mindanao, is about four hours to Cotabato City.
The expansion of Cebu Pacific's operations in the provinces loom even if its chief executive officer, Lance Y. Gokongwei, projected that the company will post losses in the second half due to high fuel costs and a traditional drop in air travel during the rainy season.
Gokongwei told reporters in Manila that demand for travel would continue to grow because of low fares, but rising oil prices continue to threaten profits.
"If 60 percent of your cost is oil and its price nearly doubled, you have no recourse but to adjust prices," the executive said.
Now in its 13th year, CEB has the youngest aircraft fleet in the Philippines. It has a fleet of ten A319s, eight A320s, and two ATR72-500 aircraft. (BSS)
