Cebu Pacific to refund tickets of 1.5M passengers

Budget carrier Cebu Pacific will provide refunds to an estimated 1.5 million passengers as 50 percent of its fleet remains grounded due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Charo Logarta Lagamon, corporate communications director for Cebu Pacific Air, assured that passengers who requested refunds since April or earlier will be refunded by August.

“All of a sudden, we have a situation where hundreds of thousands of passengers are all clamoring for a refund in a 160-day time frame. It’s not that simple to refund, especially now that there’s no cash flow in the airline. Nothing is going in and everything is going out,” she said in a Zoom meeting Friday, Aug. 7.

Lagamon said they are doing their best to fast-track the process and that there are reforms underway to help in the refund process.

She said the airline will reimburse payments made through credit or debit card while for those who paid in cash, the refund will be deposited in the bank account of the customer.

Moreover, to stay afloat during these challenging times, the airline also implemented cost-cutting measures like the layoffs of 800 employees, which is 20 percent of the airline’s 4,000 employees.

Company officials also had pay cuts.

“Our second-quarter performance was very challenged due to the prolonged Covid-19 situation,” she said.

Meanwhile, Cebu Pacific placed 14 of its 76 aircraft in long-term storage in Alice Springs, Australia to preserve the airline’s condition. Others were parked in the different hubs in the country.