Cebu Pacific to open Sydney, Kuwait flights

Cebu Pacific Airlines. Wikipedia photo

MANILA — Cebu Pacific will be mounting flights to Sydney, Australia and Kuwait, September this year, making it the first low cost airline to offer nonstop Manila-Sydney route.

The Gokongwei-owned company will be flying to Australia four times a week with one-way fares offered at a promo rate of P4,999, and regular rate at P12,150.

“Australia and Philippines trade has been growing quite robustly, but we feel quite strongly that tourism potential both ways is still not yet fully maximized. There is still a lot of potential for additional traffic between the Philippines and Australia,” Cebu Pacific Long Haul Division general manager Alex Reyes said in a press conference on Monday.

The flight, which will start on September 9 aims to boost tourism between Australia and the Philippines.

“There is a huge potential for the Philippines to attract a lot more tourist arrivals from Australia,” he said.

Meanwhile, its flights to Kuwait which will start on September 2, is offered at promo rate of P1 fare seat sale for Kuwait flights, and regular rate at P4,999.

Lance Gokongwei, Cebu Pacific president and chief executive, meanwhile noted that traffic growth in the said areas is to be expected.

“Since we introduced our direct Manila to Dubai flights, the prices between Manila and Dubai dropped an average of 15 percent, and up to 30 percent on a seat sale basis. If you look at the first quarter of this year, the traffic between Manila and Dubai has grown as a result of these lower fares,” Gokongwei said.

A brand-new 436-seater Airbus A330-300 aircraft will be used for the Sydney and Kuwait flights.

With reports from Jon Carlos Rodriguez