15 March 2019
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| Boeing has gained traction in the race for Cebu Pacific (CEB) wide-body re-fleeting program as the airline intends to replace its A330-300 planes leases of which start expiring in 2022. The airline leases six A330 aircraft from Avolon subsidiary Park Aerospace Holdings (three units) of Ireland, Voyager Aviation (two units) (formerly Intrepid) of the United States, and DAE Capital (one) of UAE. The first two are owned by Cebu's in-house leasing firm Cebu Aircraft Leasing (formerly with CIT Leasing), a subsidiary of JG Summit Holding. CEB Chief Operating Officer Michael Ivan Shau said its a better eight hour aircraft passenger and payload wise. The airline is currently evaluating performance characteristics between Boeing B787-1000 and Airbus A330-900Neos in single class setup. The A339 however is a formidable plane able to carry maximum payload 1000nm than its older sibling besting almost the same characteristic as the Boeing plane. Both planes can carry 440 passengers on a single layout, but according to Shau Boeing flies farther for the same payload but costs more than the Airbus plane. "It now depends on their proposal," said Shau. Decision to acquire and to what type of aircraft will be made on the second half of this year. Cebu Pacific will replace all existing A330s with this plane as their leases expire and intends to grow this new fleet to 15 by 2025. The airline flies its widebody plane to Cebu, Davao, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Osaka, Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne, and Dubai. CEB has been complaining on the range of its current A330 certified to fly 4,000nm at maximum payload as it regularly leaves cargo behind in Dubai to put more fuel into the aircraft to arrive safely in Manila. The company has three variants of the A330 that seats 436, with the latest heavier variant doing rotations to Dubai, Sydney and Melbourne. Shau said the additional fleet will be needed to fly Australia by 2022, and Bangkok, China, Korea, Taipei, and Japan by 2024 from Manila and Cebu. |
I heard 5J also plans on introducing premium seating, might be premium economy or a 'business class lite.' Their study was just finished last year.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a new CEB order at the Paris Air Show 2019 is in the horizon.
ReplyDeletePlanning to compete with AirAsia X, head-on..
ReplyDeleteThe regular A330 can actually fly to the Middle East well with decent cargo, the thing with CebPac is that their A330s are very high density with no premium cabin. Kung mas kaunti ang kanilang pasahero kayang kaya ng A330.
ReplyDeletePremium cabin in not part of 5J's business plan.
ReplyDeleteCebu Pacific, the Edsa bus of airlines. Fly cram-packed sardinas style with all your fellow OFWs with all your balikbayan boxes. Choose your snacks from Jack n Jill, C2, or mani. I'm not sure the Boeing plastic plane cheapliner would be able to handle it.
ReplyDeleteDreamliner used to go to lagos nigeria with 900+ bags on 787-8 out of iah
ReplyDeleteIf CEB current A330 only loads fewer passengers, they better get a smaller A338neo which has smaller capacity but higher range rather than A339neo.
ReplyDelete