Cebu Pacific Air is a low-cost airline based in Pasay City, Manila, the Philippines. It is the Philippines' second national flag carrier, and currently the country's leading domestic airline. It operates scheduled domestic and international services. Its main base is Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, with a hub at Mactan-Cebu International Airport.
History
The airline was established on 26 August 1988 and started operations on March 8, 1996. It was founded as Cebu Air, and subsequently acquired by JG Summit Holdings (owned by John Gokongwei). Domestic services were started following market deregulation by the Philippine government. It temporarily ceased operations in February 1998 after being grounded by the government, but resumed services later the next month following re-certification of its aircraft[1]. It initially started with 24 domestic flights daily among Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Davao City. By the end of 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.[citation needed]
The airline resumed its Manila to Singapore flights on August 31, 2006 and launched 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.[citation needed]
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.
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 Busan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Seoul-Incheon from its Cebu hub; and Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Taipei and Seoul-Incheon from Manila.
The airline is wholly owned by JG Summit Holdings and has 1,182 employees (at March 2007)[1]. It 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.
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.
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New Routes
- Service to Malay, Aklan begins early 2008.
- Daily service, between Manila, Metro Manila and Shanghai-Pudong, China, begins September 12, 2007.
- Daily service, between Manila, Metro Manila and Xiamen, China, begins September 26, 2007.
- Four times a week service, between Manila, Metro Manila and Guangzhou, China, begins October 10, 2007.
- Thrice a week service, between Manila, Metro Manila and Macau, China, begins October 11, 2007.
- Thrice a week service, between Angeles City, Pampanga and Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Thailand, is pending government approval.
- Daily service, between Angeles City, Pampanga and Hong Kong, China, is pending government approval.
- Four times a week service, between Angeles City, Pampanga and Macau, China, is pending government approval.
- Four times a week service, between Angeles City, Pampanga and Singapore, Singapore, is pending government approval.
- Thrice a week service, between Angeles City, Pampanga and Taipei-Taiwan Taoyuan, Taiwan, is pending government approval.
Fleet
The Cebu Pacific Air fleet includes the following aircraft (at May 2007).
Alliances
Cebu Pacific is the only Philippine-based member airline of Northwest Airlines' WorldPerks award travel program. WorldPerks offers regular travelers the ability to obtain free tickets, First Class upgrades on flights, or other types of rewards.
The airline is also partnering with Metrobank Card Corporation for its Go! Mastercard credit card which offers frequent flyer reward points.
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