Local carriers Cebu Pacific Inc. (CEB) and AirAsia Philippines are bullish about the domestic market’s recovery this year as travel restrictions are eased and international borders reopen.
Lance Gokongwei, CEB president and chief executive officer (CEO), said at the recent virtual annual stockholders meeting the airline is optimistic to recover this year.
As of mid-April 2022, CEB said, its domestic market share stood at 60 percent which is already ahead of its full year 2019 and 2021 domestic market share of 53 percent.
“We continue to boost our domestic capacity and estimate that by end of May our capacity share will increase further to 62 percent. We are glad to share that we are nearing our pre-COVID network, for our domestic network flying 34 destinations and 54 routes and at least 1,900 weekly flights, forward booking is likewise strong and growing, daily bookings are significantly higher than last year,” Gokongwei said.
In the first quarter this year, CEB reported a net loss of P7.6 billion, 4.3 percent higher than the P7.3 billion net loss reported in the same period last year.
However, CEB’s revenue surged 148 percent to P6.7 billion in the first quarter, from P2.7 billion generated in the same period last year, driven by the increase in passenger volume, cargo services and flight activities as the COVID-19 restrictions started to ease by March 2022.
Passenger revenues jumped 256 percent to P3.2 billion from P887.4 million earned in the three months ending March 31, 2021.
This was mainly attributable to the 272.4 percent increase in passenger volume from 600,000 to 2 million, brought about by higher number of flights by 128 percent, together with a 16.7 percentage points increase in seat load factor from 53.2 percent to 69.9 percent, the airline said .
Despite the higher net loss, CEB expects better results this year.
“Cebu Pacific looks for the better days as we regain our position as one of the world’s strongest airlines. Our outlook gets brighter as we bank on domestic driven recovery this 2022 and look forward as international borders likewise reopen,” Gokongwei said.
Meanwhile, budget carrier AirAsia Philippines yesterday said it recorded a 553 percent growth in total guests flown in April 2022 versus the same month last year, an indicator of its strong momentum toward recovery.
Confidence to travel also rose significantly post-Omicron surge as observed in AirAsia’s forward booking rate.
In April alone, the airline said, it was able to achieve 63 percent of its pre-pandemic figures for travel happening in two to three months, while it reached 39 percent for bookings 90 days ahead of travel date and beyond.
“Apart from the interzonal travel vis-a-vis the elections, the number of guests we have flown and the rise in advance bookings by at least two months in the past quarter are representative of the strong momentum toward recovery, which is sure to reinforce our country’s economic standing as we ready to exit the pandemic,” said Ricky Isla, AirAsia Philippines CEO.
Forward bookings for the month of May have also started to pick-up with close to 130,000 seats already sold, the airline said.
“We expect the demand to increase towards the end of Q2 (second quarter) for travels which will be made for Q3 (third quarter) and Q4 (fourth quarter). AirAsia Philippines is committed to providing our guests with flexible schedules, affordable fares and the safest means of transportation to their destinations. We will also continue to provide our guests with exciting promos to match their travel needs,” Isla said. – Myla Iglesias
