Cebu Pacific allots $5B to refleeting program

CEBU CITY—Budget carrier Cebu Pacific may spend up to $5.07 billion when it implements its new refleeting program that would entail the acquisition of as many as 15 wide-body jets.

Michael Ivan S. Shau, the company’s COO, said his group is evaluating its strategy on replacing its eight old Airbus A330s with new, more fuelefficient wide-body airliners.

He said the group is considering acquiring either Boeing 787 and the Airbus A330 neo (new engine option)

jets, depending on the value they will add to the company’s operations.

“We are looking at replacing our A330 fleet with a fleet size of 10 to 15 wide-body aircraft,” Shau said. “We’re always looking for the best available option to bring maximum savings for our passengers.”

Based on their list prices, an A330 neo costs about $259.9-million each, or about $3.9 billion for 15 new jets. A Boeing 787-10, the biggest of the 787 family, costs about $338.4-million each, or about $5.07 billion for 15 new Dreamliners.

Shau noted that all these are still under discussion, with Cebu Pacific formally requesting more information on the two aircraft brands.

“We need to request for information. We still haven’t gone to the commercial aspects of it,” he said.

The whole process—even if the aircraft is available—would take about 18 months to complete, Shau said.

Cebu Pacific currently has a fleet of one Airbus A321neo, 36 Airbus A320s, seven Airbus A321ceos, eight Airbus A330s, eight ATR 72-500s and 12 ATR 72-600s.

It is set to receive 12 brandnew aircraft in 2019—six Airbus A321neos, five A320 neos, and one ATR 72-600.

Through 2022, the company will engage in a massive refleeting program that will upgrade old aircraft and add more fuel-efficient ones to end 2022 with 83 jets.

Being the largest airline in the Philippines by volume, Cebu Pacific aims to spur traveling among Filipinos. For 2019, it targets to serve as many as 23 million passengers, and reach the 200-millionth passenger mark by 2020.

Cebu Pacific and subsidiar y Cebgo fly to 36 domestic and 26 international destinations, with over 107 routes spanning Asia, Australia, the Middle East and the US.