Cebu Pacific
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| Cebu Pacific Air | ||
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| IATA 5J |
ICAO CEB |
Callsign Cebu Air |
| Founded | 1996 | |
| Hubs | Ninoy Aquino International Airport Mactan-Cebu International Airport |
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| Focus cities / secondary hubs | Francisco Bangoy International Airport | |
| Fleet size | 12 (plus 2 on order) | |
| Destinations | 26 | |
| Parent company | JG Summit Holdings, Inc. | |
| Headquarters | Pasay City, Philippines | |
| Key people | John Gokongwei, Jr. (Chairman Emeritus), Ricardo J. Romulo (Chairman), Lance Gokongwei (President and CEO) | |
| Website: http://www.cebupacificair.com | ||
Cebu Pacific Air is a low-cost airline based in Pasay City, Manila, the Philippines. It is the country's second largest airline after Philippine Airlines. Its main base is Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, with a hub at Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
The airline is a subsidiary of JG Summit Holdings, controlled by the Gokongwei family - one of the richest Filipino-Chinese families based in the Philippines. Cebu Pacific is currently headed by Lance Gokongwei, presumptive heir of John Gokongwei, the chairman emeritus of JG Summit.
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[edit] History
The airline was established on 26 August 1988 and started operations on March 8, 1996. It initially started with 24 domestic flights daily among Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Davao City. By end 2001, its operations has grown to about 80 daily flight to 18 domestic destinations.
In the 2000s, Cebu Pacific was granted rights to operate international flights to the region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Guam. International flights were launched on November 22, 2001 with a twice daily service to Hong Kong. On March 1, 2002, it commenced thrice weekly flights to Seoul. Other regional flights were introduced and suspended later, however, including flights to Singapore (from 6 November 2002 to January 2003) and from Manila via Subic to Seoul (from December 2002) due in part to the effects of the SARS epidemic.
The airline resumed its Manila to Singapore flights on August 31, 2006 and will launch its direct flight from Cebu to Singapore on October 23, 2006, the first low-cost airline to serve the Cebu-Singapore-Cebu sector and in direct competition with Singapore Airlines' subsidiary SilkAir and Qatar Airways and CEB will be the only Philippine carrier to serve a Cebu-Singapore-Cebu route after PAL terminated its direct service. The airline will also serve direct flights from Cebu to Hong Kong starting October 2, 2006, which will make CEB the only Philippine carrier to serve a Cebu-Hong Kong-Cebu route after PAL terminated its direct service and is now code sharing with Cathay Pacific for this route.
In May 2005 Cebu Pacific received 2 Airbus A320-214 aircraft on lease from CIT Leasing and operated its first service with the new aircraft on 3 June 2005 from Manila to Davao City. The airline is wholly owned by JG Summit Holdings and has 1,356 employees (at January 2005).
In December 2006, after a month or two of operating the new direct flights, Cebu Pacific announced that they will be increasing their frequencies in their Cebu-Hong Kong-Cebu from 4 to 5 times weekly and Cebu-Singapore-Cebu flights from 4 to 6 weekly effective 25 January 2007. Currently, it operates regional flights to Seoul-Incheon, Busan, Hongkong, and Singapore from its Cebu hub.
[edit] Incidents and accidents
- On February 2, 1998, Cebu Pacific Flight 387, a DC-9-32 travelling from Manila to Cagayan de Oro, crashed on the slopes of Mount Sumagaya in Misamis Oriental, killing all 104 people on board. The crash was one of the country's worst air tragedies. Aviation investigators deemed the incident to be caused by pilot error when the plane made a non-regular stopover to Tacloban. Flight 387 was supposed to be a direct flight but due to the stopover, the pilots were not familiar with the route.
- On February 16, 2006, Cebu Pacific Flight 627, a DC-9-32 travelling from Manila to Dumaguete, a few minutes before taking off from Ninoy Aquino International Airport the tire of the front landing gear of the plane burst while taxing on the runway. Both runways of the airport were closed for about 2 hours due to the incident, flights that were going to land were instructed to divert to nearby airports, and departing flights were delayed. After about 2 hours the tires of the front landing gear of the plane were replaced with new ones and Flight 627 arrived Sibulan Airport in Dumaguete safely.
[edit] Destinations
Cebu Pacific operates 100+ flights a day, to 26 destinations in 6 countries.
- Further information: Cebu Pacific destinations
[edit] New routes
- 3 times weekly nonstop service between Manila, Philippines and Jakarta, Indonesia, begins January 31, 2007 [1].
[edit] Fleet
The Cebu Pacific Air fleet includes the following aircraft (at August 2006) [2] :
- 10 Airbus A319-100
- 2 Airbus A320-200 (plus 2 on order)
The airline currently has an all Airbus fleet, composed of Airbus A319-100s and Airbus A320-214s. The last two Airbus A320-214s will be delivered by February of 2007.
The average Cebu Pacific fleet is less than 10 months old as of October 2006.
[edit] Trivia
- Cebu Pacific is the first Philippine airline to introduce e-ticketing.
- Cebu Pacific is currently the only Philippine airline to let passengers buy their tickets on the internet and lets passengers receive their tickets through e-mail.
- Cebu Pacific currently has the youngest fleet in the Philippines and one of the youngest in Asia.
- Cebu Pacific's last flight of their Douglas DC9-32 was on July 26, 2006 which was flight number 5J570 which departed Mactan-Cebu International Airport at 5:45pm and arrived Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 6:55pm. This was the last flight of their DC9 for after ten years of service. The airline gave a ceremonial retirement to this as it made its way to the Manila Domestic Passenger Terminal.
- Cebu Pacific also gave away 6 commemorative Douglas DC9-32 photos as Fun Flights prizes on the last flight of their Douglas DC9-32.
- Cebu Pacific is currently the only Philippine carrier that operates a Cebu-Hong Kong-Cebu route. Philippine Airlines previously served the said route, Philippine Airlines currently code-shares with Cathay Pacific for this route.
- Cebu Pacific is currently the only Philippine carrier that operates a Cebu-Singapore-Cebu route. Philippine Airlines previously served the said route.
- Cebu Pacific is currently the only Philippine carrier that operates a Cebu-Busan-Cebu route.
- Cebu Pacific is currently the only Philippine carrier that operates a Manila-Kuala Lumpur-Manila route. Philippine Airlines previously served this route, Philippine Airlines currently code-shares with Malaysia Airlines for this route.
- Cebu Pacific is currently the only low-cost carrier to operate a Manila-Bangkok-Manila route.
- Cebu Pacific will be the only Philippine carrier to operate a non-stop Manila-Jakarta-Manila route, which will begin on 31 January 2007. Philippine Airlines, operates the said route via Singapore.
- Cebu Pacific is now the number 1 domestic airline in the Philippines in terms of flying the most passengers, operating the most number of flight frequencies and routes and flying to the most domestic destinations. Cebu Pacific also has a domestic market share of 45% and is ahead of its closest competitor, Philippine Airlines, by 1 market share point.
[edit] References
- ^ Cebu Pacific flies Manila-Jakarta for only P999
- ^ Flight International, 3-9 October 2006
[edit] External links
| Airlines of the Philippines |  |
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Defunct: Aerolift Philippines • Air Ads • Air Manila International • DragonAir • Filipinas Orient Airways • Grand Air International • Laoag International Airlines |
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