Cebu Air Inc. (CEB), which operates budget carrier Cebu Pacific, yesterday said its net loss ballooned to P13.8 billion in the first half this year as the pandemic continues to severely impact its business.
In a filing at the Philippine Stock Exchange, CEB said its net loss in the first semester was 51 percent higher compared to the P9.1-billion net loss reported in the same period last year.
The group’s service revenues also fell by 66 percent to P5.9 billion six months into 2021 from P17.3 billion in the comparable period last year, attributed to the significant reduction of passenger revenues due to a 73.4 percent decline in passenger volume.
Passenger revenues dropped 82.4 percent to P2.03 billion in January to June this year from the P11.5 billion generated a year ago.
This was largely due to a decline in passenger volume, from 4.5 million to 1.2 million, in line with lesser number of flights by 55 percent, coupled with a 25.9 percentage point decrease in seat load factor from 81 percent to 55 percent, and lower average fares by 33.7 percent.
However, CEB’s cargo revenues grew 26.7 percent to P2.8 billion in the first half this year from P2.2 billion in the same period last year, mostly due to higher yield from chartered cargo services and slight increase in kilograms carried by about 3 percent.
