Cebu Pacific Air resumes capacity expansion following rare market share declines

Cebu Pacific Air has resumed domestic and regional international expansion, driven mainly by the redeployment of A330s from unprofitable long haul routes. The low cost airline group has increased domestic seat capacity by 12% and regional international seat capacity by 23%, kick-starting a new phase of growth after flat overall capacity in 2016 and only 3% growth in 1H2017.

Capacity in its four largest international markets – Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and South Korea – is up significantly driven by the up-gauging of flights from A320s to A330-300s. Domestic capacity is on the upswing due to up-gauging of trunk routes and new point to point turboprop routes.

Cebu Pacific is planning more capacity expansion in 2018 as eight A321s are delivered, enabling further up-gauging as the largest narrowbody aircraft in its fleet is now the A320. The group should be able to resume market share growth, reversing rare market share declines in 2016 and 1H2017.