Air Philippines Fastest Growing Airline in 2011

SEAIR Biggest Loser!

November 24, 2011

Airphil Express, Philippines fastest growing airline beating Cebu Pacific by a mile.

Low Cost Carrier Airphil Express is heading to become the country's fastest growing Airline for 2011 as it exceeded 100 percent growth rate in the span of one year, data from The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) showed recently.

Air Philippines, operating as AirPhil Express, more than doubled its domestic passenger to 2.71 million, from 1.122 million it carried last year.

Zest Airways, another low cost carrier, followed Airphils path posting healthy gains of 75%, all in the first nine months as domestic passengers it carried rose from 902,935 in the same period of last year to 1.58 million this year.

Meanwhile,  Cebu Pacific (CEB), the country's biggest LCC, saw leveling of its market share as it registered increase of only 3% or  a rise of 6.17 million passengers from 6 million in the same nine-month period.

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) posted a sharp drop in passenger traffic for the nine-month period to 3.44 million, down 16 % year on year, as it saw transition period for its flight operations which still has to normalized.

South East Asian Airlines is the biggest loser as it registered a 27% decrease of its passengers from 159,086 to 115,525 passengers for the same 10 month period, year on year.

To feed its tremendous growth, APX senior vice-president for marketing and sales Alfredo Herrera said that by 2012 additional five A320s will join the fleet and another five A320s will join in 2013 to complete its 20-aircraft, $250-million expansion program approved last year. 

Also, Butch Rordiguez, Zest Airways’ commercial and external affairs senior vice president, said the company will be acquiring 15 additional Airbus A320 up to 2015 as it targets to increase passenger numbers as well as its fleet of Airbus A320's.

Cebu Pacific will take an additional 16 Airbus A320 aircraft between 2012 and 2014.

Passenger numbers on domestic commercial flights increased 14% to 14.03 million in January to September from the 12.28 million recorded in the same period last year, data from the Civil Aeronautics Board showed.

Cargo volume this year dipped 5% to 127.73 million kilograms from 134.24 million kg in the same comparative periods, according to the same set of data released last week. 

Airphil express and Zest Air carried more cargo than the rest, posting hikes of 236% to 16.074 million kg and 11.8% to 9.99 million kg, respectively. All other carriers saw domestic cargo volumes drop.