THE Philippines’ largest national flag carrier, Cebu Pacific (CEB), began operating direct flights from Davao to both Kalibo and Puerto Princesa on Aug. 2, providing invaluable linkages to these three tourism destinations.
Both routes will be available as a four times weekly service every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, utilizing CEB’s brand-new Airbus A320 aircraft fleet.
“Starting today, two popular tourism destinations, Puerto Princesa and Boracay, will be within easy reach of Dabawenyos and vice versa. Providing accessibility across the Philippine islands continue to be one of Cebu Pacific’s top priorities, and is evident in the rest of the new routes we are launching later this year,” said CEB VP for Marketing and Distribution Candice Iyog.
With the launch of four weekly flights from Kalibo to Davao, CEB also bolsters its extensive Philippine route network with a 6th hub: Kalibo. From Kalibo, CEB currently operates thrice weekly flights to Hong Kong and 30 weekly flights to Manila, as well as chartered CEB flights from Kalibo to Taipei and Incheon (Seoul).
Other CEB hubs in the Philippines are Manila, Cebu, Clark, Davao and Iloilo. CEB currently offers 63 domestic routes to 32 domestic destinations.
“With Kalibo as our 6th hub, CEB continues to play its part in upholding the country’s tourism agenda, and making air travel affordable and accessible to even more Filipinos,” she added.
CEB is slated to launch the following flights in the 2nd half of 2012: October 4 (Cebu-Coron, Tacloban-Legazpi), October 5 (Davao-Butuan, Davao-Dipolog, Tacloban-Iloilo), and October 20 (Cagayan de Oro – Zamboanga).
The airline will also launch new routes out of Western Visayas: November 8 (Iloilo-Hong Kong, Iloilo-General Santos) and November 9 (Iloilo-Singapore, Iloilo-Puerto Princesa, Cagayan de Oro – Bacolod).
The largest airline operating out of Davao and Puerto Princesa, CEB adds the launch to its list of milestones. CEB is the first and the only airline with direct flights from Palawan to Western Visayas and Mindanao. It is also the pioneer in connecting Western Visayas to Mindanao through air travel.
CEB currently operates 10 Airbus A319, 20 Airbus A320 and 8 ATR-72 500 aircraft. Its fleet of 38 aircraft – with an average age of 3.6 years – is the largest aircraft fleet in the Philippines. Between 2012 and 2021, Cebu Pacific will take delivery of 22 more Airbus A320 and 30 Airbus A321neo aircraft orders. It is slated to begin long-haul services in the 3rd quarter of 2013.
In its 16th year of operations, CEB had flown over 60 million passengers. It provides access to the most extensive network in the Philppines, with 32 domestic and 19 international destinations. The airline also remains a pioneer in the Philippine aviation industry by being the first to offer web check-in, self check-in, e-ticketing and Lite Fares.
