China’s ‘secondary cities’ eyed

CEBU PACIFIC’S PLANS

Cebu Pacific Air (CEB), one of the country’s leading domestic carrier, is looking at the possibility of opening destinations to North Asia, particularly the secondary cities of China.

Lance Gokongwei, CEB president and chief executive officer, said the airline would have 10 more aircrafts next year that would serve international destinations connecting North Asia, specifically China, to the Philippines.

Gokongwei did not name the specific destinations but said that these would be secondary cities outside the main metropolitan cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

“There’re really a lot of interest in North Asia, China especially, to connect to the Philippines. I think there’re going to be large opportunities to secondary Chinese cities in China … the ones outside of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou so we can start connecting Chengdu and Xian to our destinations,” he told reporters in a press conference after the launching of the airline’s sustainable tourism program in Shangri-La Makati.

However, he said that the Manila airports had been congested to welcome more flights.

Significant capacity

He said they were looking at adding “significant capacity” to Clark, Cebu and Bohol with the recent opening of Mactan Cebu International Airport’s Terminal 2 and the soon-to-be-opened Panglao International Airport.

Gokongwei described Bohol as the next Boracay in terms of its potential to attract tourists.

CEB aims to fly 22 million passengers by the end of 2018.

In 2017, the carrier flew a total of 19.7 million passengers.

On July 31, Gokongwei led the launching of its sustainable tourism program called “Juan Effect.”

It also announced the airline’s shift to eco-friendly utensils from single-use plastic aware as part of its initiative to push for sustainable practices and reduce inflight wastes.