Cake Cutting Ceremony with (L-R) GMCAC Airline Marketing & Tourism Development Head Aines Librodo, China Eastern Airlines Assistant GM Allan Rillera, China Eastern Pilot and China Eastern Country Manager Channe Chen
GMR-MEGAWIDE Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC), the private company managing the Terminal operations and other related areas of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, welcomed last September 25, the arrival of flight MU5025, carrying 112 passengers from Chengdu via a water canon salute courtesy of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority Crash Fire and Rescue Division and the Lapu-Lapu City Government’s Fire Department.
The inaugural launch was attended by the executives of China Eastern Airlines’ Chen Li Wei, general manager of the Manila office, Hua Liang Zeng, airport manager, Allan Rillera, Assistant General Manager, and GMCAC Airline Marketing and Tourism Development Head Aines Librodo, along with China Eastern Airlines’ pilot and cabin crew.
China Eastern Airlines, China’s second largest carrier, with hubs at Shanghai’s Pudong and Hongqiao airports, as well as Kunming Airport in southwest serves over 350 domestic routes and 40 international destinations.
China Eastern Airlines used to run chartered flights to Cebu but the steady growth of Chinese tourists from 32,450 arrivals during the first quarter 2015 to 65.337 in the same period this year led the company to finally operate a four times weekly flight from Chengdu to Cebu utilizing an Airbus 319 with 112 economy and eight business class seats. China Eastern Airlines leaves Cebu for Chengdu at 2:20 am every Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwest Sichuan Province, is famed for being the home of giant pandas. Other attractions in Chengdu include the Jiuzhai Valley National Park; the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, constructed 2,000 years ago is the oldest and only surviving no-dam irrigation system in the world; and the Sanxingdui Museum, which exhibits the excavations of the ancient Shu Kingdom.
Chengdu was also the first city in Asia, ahead of Tokyo and Hong Kong, to have its cuisine honored by Unesco.
The Cebu-Chengdu route is the second destination to China from Cebu. Last March, MCIA launched the Cebu-Xiamen flight via Xiamen Air.
MCIA connects to 13 international destinations and 23 domestic destinations. /PR