27 February 2018
Philippine low cost carrier Cebu Pacific Air (CEB) will finally fly Melbourne beginning August 14, 2018 thrice a week from Manila. It will be its second destination in Australia after Sydney.
Cebu Pacific Vice-President for Corporate Affairs JR Mantaring said that plans to launch the flights earlier scheduled on “June” this year was rescheduled to August due to delay in regulatory approvals for the route.
The launch for Melbourne flight was postponed three times due to aircraft rationalization and poor economic conditions of the airline.
Rationalization resulted in the axing of most of its Middle East Flights with Dubai the only destination remaining. From June to July last year, it suspended operations to Kuwait, Doha and Riyadh. Dammam was earlier terminated in 2015.
Cebu Pacific’s revenue performance in Sydney, which was launched in 2014, is getting better says Mantaring, and the airline hopes Melbourne can stimulate further demand in the Philippines-Australia market.
The airline initially added Melbourne to its network plan in 2015 after the Philippines and Australia expanded its air services agreement. Another plan was drawn in 2016 but Cebu Pacific decided to shelve plans to launch Melbourne after incurring heavy losses from its long haul operations. It has since rationalized the routes and redeployed A330 fleet to expand its domestic and regional international market.
Sydney and Dubai, which is served daily most of the year, are the only remaining long haul routes in Cebu Pacific’s network which constantly use three aircraft on rotations.
The arrival of seven A321ceos on March 2018 and the joining of thirty two new A321Neo aircraft beginning on the fourth quarter of 2018 until 2022 should free up the utilization of three other A330s which would be used for Australian and Hawaii expansion.
CEB operates a fleet of six A330-300s used for its international flights to Dubai, Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Singapore aside from domestic route in Cebu and Davao.
https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/277366/cebu-pacific-plans-melbourne-august-2018-launch/
ReplyDeleteYesterday PAL just increased its frequency to MEL from 3 times weekly to 5 times weekly starting june 1, not sure if its response from CEB launch of flight to MEL or this was planned ?
Deletehttps://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/277392/philippine-airlines-boosts-melbourne-service-from-June-2018
And yet we broke them first here. And so does some of our earlier posts.
ReplyDeleteGood luck to them. It seems that their long-haul routes were struggling other than Dubai and Sydney, which is why only they were kept. Still, provided that they provide attractive fares and a decent level of service, they could end up making an impact on the route.
ReplyDeleteAlso, they're not planning to join AirAsia at Avalon?
Cebu Pacific needs business class for long haul expansion, just like in what AirAsia X and Air Transtat serve. For example, 12 or 18 business class seats for Airbus A330-300 with 6 abreast (2-2-2) configuration.
ReplyDeleteCebu Pacific Airbus A330s are among the most dense in the world with 436 seats while Air Asia X has 377 but to be fair D7 has 12 Full lie-flat beds seats in their A330 hence why the capacity is less. I do agree that they do need a premium cabin like Air Asia X Premium flat beds or Premium Economy in a 2-3-2 configuration as a contrast to the 3-3-3 configuration.
Deletedoses any one know the registration of the Philippine airlines try class A330
ReplyDeleteRP-C878X Series PaL triClass aircraft registration..
ReplyDelete