can only be good news
Cebu Air, the Philippines’ biggest budget carrier, plans to get 33 per cent of sales from long-haul flights within five years as AirAsia and Tiger Airways Holdings challenge its grip on the domestic market.
The airline, which operates as Cebu Pacific, will begin the push in the second half of 2013 by adding flights to the UAE and Saudi Arabia, president Lance Gokongwei said in an interview in Manila. It will target the more than three million Filipino workers employed in the Middle East, who generally fly there via Singapore or Hong Kong.
“Our key project next year is the long-haul expansion,” Gokongwei said. Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways “will be my main competitors” on Middle East routes as no Philippine carriers fly them, he said.
Cebu Air intends to get 25 per cent of the 50 billion peso ($1.2 billion) Philippine-Middle East market by 2015, Gokongwei said. The carrier has also said it may fly to Australia, the US and Europe as its 45 per cent share on domestic routes is threatened by Philippine Airlines and low-cost carriers.
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