THE Mactan Cebu International Airport (MCIA) reported new flights and increased flight frequencies in the first half of the year.
Philippines Air Asia launched three new routes out of MCIA to Chinese destinations-- Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. It also added a thrice-weekly flight to Clark in May.
Philippine Airlines subsidiary PAL Express resumed PAL’s Cebu-Chengdu service last May 8 and mounted charter flights to Hangzhou and Nanjing this month.
Cebu Pacific has started charter services as well to two Chinese destinations, namely, Shanghai and Beijing, with three and two weekly flights, respectively.
Meanwhile, other foreign carriers mounted new routes from Cebu including Beijing-based airline Okay Airways, which kicked off its Cebu-Changsa-Cebu route last June 10 with its thrice-weekly flights.
China Eastern Airlines upgraded its Cebu-Shanghai service from an A320 to the wide-body A330 aircraft starting this month. The A333 (33E) aircraft has a capacity of 29 business class and 203 economy seats, while the 33L aircraft that they are using offers 31 business class, 32 premium economy, and 229 economy seats.
Royal Air Charter Service, Inc., the newest addition to the airlines operating at the Mactan-Cebu Airport, commenced its non-scheduled, daily charter services from Cebu to Macau starting last June 20.
In a statement, GMR-Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC) president Louie Ferrer explained that the increase in flight frequencies and the addition of new routes especially to China showed there is a growing demand from the Chinese market for alternative travel destinations and Cebu has become their top choice.
Ferrer, likewise, credited the growth to GMCAC’s initiatives to add connections to other regions in the country and to Southeast Asian destinations. He assured that GMCAC remains committed to its goal of making Mactan Cebu International Airport the major transfer hub in Southeast Asia, following the opening of Terminal 2.
“We aggressively promote Cebu as a premium destination in the Philippines and proactively support other agencies that share the same vision,” he said.
MCIA recorded a total of 37,720 domestic flights, up by 12.25 percent from 33,603 in 2017.
Meanwhile, international flights hit a 14.78-percent increase to 12,123 flights from 10,562 of last year’s first half.
Peak air traffic movement was recorded in the month of May, with 6,642 domestic flights and 2,101 international flights.
“We closed the mid-year with a remarkable performance and we are positive to hit the projected 11.2 million passenger traffic this year, especially now that we have opened Terminal 2,” Ferrer said.
MCIA recorded 3.87 million domestic passengers while it logged 1.89 million international passengers.