Jan. 23--Despite the country's economic difficulties, Cebu Pacific on Thursday said it expects to carry more passengers this year, boosted by cheaper fare and increase in seat capacity.

The airline, which claimed the number one position in the local industry, said it expects to fly 9.3 million passengers this year. It expects six new aircrafts--three Airbus A320 and three ATR 72-500--to be delivered this year that would allow it to expand its route network within the country and in Asia.

The Gokongwei-owned budget airline said it flew 6.7 million passengers last year, up 23 percent over its 2007 figure.

"We carried 5.38 million domestic passengers last year, up 20.7 percent from 2007, while international passengers rose by 33 percent, from one million to 1.4 million," Lance Gokongwei, Cebu Pacific's president and chief executive, said.

Gokongwei attributed the growth to the increase in seat capacity coupled with its "trademark low fares."

"We were able to successfully convince more Filipinos to travel by air despite economic uncertainties; 2008 challenged us to look for ways to stimulate travel and sustain our domestic and international operations," he added.

Earlier, the company said it removed fuel and insurance surcharges for all domestic flights starting January 7 while it reduced these surcharges for select international routes to entice more passengers.

Gokongwei added that the company would continue to look for ways in delivering a simple and reliable product and that the public can expect more innovations from Cebu Pacific this year.

Last year, the airline expanded its total number of destinations to 42 from 32 in 2007. It also increased the number of routes to 63 from 43.

The Civil Aeronautics Board earlier projected that the domestic air travel would expand between 8 percent and 11 percent this year.

"We hope it will grow at least double digit. But it may expand within the lower band of the projection. Maybe 8 percent this year," Porvenir Porciuncula, CAB deputy executive director and head of economic planning, said

The CAB official said growth for this year would be driven by airlines' promotional offerings to attract passengers amid the economic difficulties.

The government estimated that the economy could grow between 3.7 percent and 4.7 percent this year.

Besides promos, Porciuncula said the airlines' expansion to small cities nationwide would stimulate growth in the airline industry.

-----

To see more of The Manila Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.manilatimes.net.

Copyright (c) 2009, The Manila Times, Philippines

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.