Phl air traffic up 1.6% in 2014

Air passenger traffic rose 1.6 percent last year amid the aggressive expansion of routes being undertaken by flag carrier Philippine Airlines Inc. and budget airline Cebu Pacific.

Data released by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) yesterday showed the volume of air passengers in the country reached 38.27 million last year or about 610,291 higher compared to 37.65 million in 2013.

International passenger traffic grew 3.4 percent to 17.92 million last year from 17.32 million in 2013 while domestic passenger traffic was flat at 20.35 million from 20.33 million.

PAL flew 4.98 million passengers while PAL Express serviced 150,266 passengers to international destinations last year. Cebu Pacific flew 3.19 million passengers to international routes.

Both PAL and Cebu Pacific introduced new long-haul routes last year and at the same time expanded their international routes.

On the domestic front, Cebu Pacific continued its dominance as it flew 11.08 million passengers within the Philippines last year or 8.2 percent higher to 10.24 million passengers in 2013 while sister airline Tiger Airway Philippines now known as Cebgo serviced 1.3 million passengers or 34.5 percent higher compared to 969,753.

On the other hand, PAL recorded a 69.3 percent decline in the volume of domestic passengers to 793,512 last year from 2.58 million in 2013 after transferring most of its domestic flights to low cost carrier unit PAL Express.

In turn, the volume of domestic passengers carried by PAL Express rose 18 percent to 5.13 million last year from 4.35 million in 2013.

The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), the country’s man gateway, handled 34.1 million international and domestic passengers last year or four percent higher compared to 32.8 million in 2013.

Data from the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) showed the number of arriving and departing domestic passengers at NAIA went up 1.8 percent to 18.02 million last year from 17.69 million in 2013 while international passenger traffic went up by 5.9 percent to 16.07 million from 15.17 million.

On the other hand, data from the Mactan Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA) showed the volume of passengers at the country’s second busiest gateway slipped two percent to 6.84 million last year from 6.99 million in 2013.

Volume of domestic passengers fell 3.4 percent to 5.16 million last year from 5.34 million in 2013 while that of international passengers inched up by three percent to 1.68 million form 1.63 million.