Cebu Pacific Inc. (CEB) is optimistic about returning to profitability by next year as its domestic and international operations are on track to achieve pre-pandemic capacity.
Xander Lao, CEB chief commercial officer, in a press briefing said the company will “break even” in the fourth quarter versus the same quarter last year and will cautiously hit profitability by next year.
CEB has restored 92 percent of its pre-pandemic system-wide capacity, of which its non-Manila system-wide network recovery stood at 57 percent and international network recovery at 68 percent.
Lao said the company will exceed its pre-pandemic capacity by the second or third quarter of 2023 with the domestic hitting over 100 percent.
Lao said the recovery of its international operation will depend on the reopening of China.
“We’ve basically grown much more than what we were doing pre-COVID in the domestic level. We are seeing green shoots of recovery. It is very encouraging to see more people confidently flying again, not just within the Philippines but even abroad,” said Lao.
The airline now flies an average of 355 flights a day, covering 34 domestic and 19 international destinations. This is equivalent to about 64,000 seats offered in a day.
Candice Iyog, CEB vice president for marketing and customer experience, said passenger traffic from January to November averages 1.4 million to 1.5 million passengers per month.
Iyog said part of the recovery plan is to ramp up frequencies of the existing domestic and international routes.
CEB flew 13.3 million passengers from January to November, up 493 percent from the same period in 2021.
For December, CEB widened its international footprint as it added more flights to Brunei, Jakarta, Seoul, Taipei and Hong Kong.
CEB plans to take delivery of 11 brand new Airbus NEO aircraft in 2023: three A320neo, four A321neo and four A330neo.
