Cebu Pacific targets 300 millionth passenger milestone

Cebu Pacific, the Philippines’ largest airline, said Monday its goal was to fly a total of 300 million passengers by 2022, as it increases capacity and invests in digital tools to drive demand.

The 300 million milestone can be reached 4 times faster than the 150 million passengers flown in 1996, 21 years after the Gokongwei-led carrier was founded, said its vice president for marketing and distribution, Candice Iyog.

Cebu Pacific sees “accelerated growth” with the delivery of 12 new Airbus jets this year, president and CEO Lance Gokongwei earlier said.

The two-fold challenge for Cebu Pacific is making bookings more convenient while handling online traffic, Iyog said.

“As we continue to invest in brand new higher capacity aircraft, the challenge that we have for us now is flying our next 150 million passengers in just 5 years, 4 times faster than when we did it the first time around,” Iyog said.

“So the first challenge really was, how might we make ourselves relevant by tapping into user shopping behavior. And then the second job to be done was addressing and improving the customer booking experience,” she added.

To lure more passengers, Cebu Pacific said it would maximize online tools to make booking easier. It also introduced a “new crazy” seat sale strategy, offering seats in clustered destinations every 2 hours, Iyog said.

Cebu Pacific currently operates 1 Airbus A321neo, 36 A320, 7 A321ceo, 8 A330, 8 ATR 72-500, 12 ATR 72-600 as of January 2019.