Cebu Pacific logs 24.5 million passengers in 2024, most are domestic travelers
MANILA, Philippines – The travel surge is real.
Cebu Pacific on Thursday, January 16, said it logged a 17.6% increase in passengers totaling 24.5 million in 2024. There’s growth in both domestic and international travelers at 15.5% and 24.6%, respectively.
Domestic passengers made up 76% of the total passengers at 18.5 million, while there were 6 million recorded international passengers who traveled with Cebu Pacific last year.
“[Cebu Pacific] is strategically positioned to take advantage of the Philippines’ economic growth and robust travel demand,” Cebu Pacific chief executive officer Mike Szucs said in a statement disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
The airline’s seat load factor (SLF) — or how many of its available seats were occupied — averaged 84.4% for the whole year. This was even if Cebu Pacific’s seat capacity grew 17.1% to 29.1 million in 2024.
Cebu Pacific offers flights to 37 domestic and 26 international destinations via a fleet of 98 aircraft.
It already had early signs of a great year. In August 2024, the airline had said it recorded its highest passenger count ever in a quarter.
The low-cost carrier flew 6 million passengers in the 2nd quarter of 2024 — the highest number in its history. The company attributed this to “summer traffic” from April to May, the school break in June, and additional frequencies.
Cebu Pacific also saw an increase in travel demand during the Christmas season, logging 31.4% more passengers. A total of 2.6 million passengers arrived at their holiday destinations thanks to the budget airline.
It also offered 30.7% more seating capacity in the last month of the year.
Domestic passengers went up by 32% in December with an 85.4% SLF partly thanks to new routes from Iloilo and Davao.
Traffic from its Davao hub grew 2.4 times as the airline introduced flights to Boracay, Puerto Princesa, and Tacloban. Meanwhile, the Iloilo hub saw traffic grow 3.3 times compared with December 2023 as flights to Dumaguete, Daraga, Tacloban, and Tagbilaran were launched.
Traffic for international passengers increased by 29.5% as SLF for overseas flights went up to 84.7%. The top destinations of Cebu Pacific passengers were Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Japan (despite the latter’s visa requirement for Philippine passport holders).
Cebu Pacific noted that it also increased the number of flights and seats going to and from these countries.
“The increased growth rate through [the 4th quarter of 2024] has already been absorbed by the market with load factors stable to positive versus the previous year,” Szucs said.
“We will continue to focus on the reliability and stability in our operations through our ongoing management of powdered metal issues with Pratt & Whitney and at the same time optimizing our capacity to serve the increase in consumer demand,” he added. – Rappler.com