Budget airline Cebu Pacific is increasing its capacity this month for the holidays, as it hopes this would help boost its operations amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
In a virtual briefing on Wednesday, Cebu Pacific Vice President Candice Iyog said the Gokongwei-led carrier decided to reopen more routes in December, subsequently increasing its capacity to 16 percent of its pre-pandemic capacity from 10 percent in June to November.
For the 12th month, Cebu Pacific would mount 400 to 450 flights weekly to 28 domestic and eight international destinations.
According to Iyog, this was part of Cebu Pacific’s move to jumpstart its recovery after the global aviation industry took a heavy blow from the pandemic, which severely restricted people’s movement.
“I think [that] while everyone is really hoping for the vaccine [to come], I think we cannot afford to wait for the vaccine to get here before we start to confidently fly again because of the impact of travel and tourism on the economy,” she said.
For the first nine months, Cebu Pacific saw its losses balloon to P14.69 billion, reversing its P6.77-billion profit a year earlier. Revenues also dropped by 70 percent to P19.34 billion in the period from P63.63 billion in the same period in 2019.
To regain customer confidence, Cebu Pacific will adopt sanitation, tracing and testing measures.
Also on Wednesday, it launched its three-day 12.12 PISO Sale to encourage more Filipinos to fly to local and international destinations.
Shares of Cebu Air operator Cebu Air Inc. added 5 centavos or 0.10 percent to close at P51.35 each on Wednesday.