The Gokongweis’ airline Cebu Pacific made history last year when it signed with Airbus and Pratt & Whitney an order for 152 A321neo aircraft for US$24 billion or P1.4 trillion, the largest in Philippine aviation history. NEO stands for new engine options, which means more fuel-efficient aircraft than the previous generation. 

Last December, one of these neo planes — an Airbus A330neo — was again added to Cebu Pacific’s fleet. The Philippines’ leading carrier now has 10 A330neos with several more up for delivery. 

Cebu Pacific continues to upgrade its fleet and the airline says it now has “one of the youngest” in the world. 

You’d have to ride an A330neo to appreciate its worth, something that I experienced on a recent Cebu Pacific 5J flight from Manila to Tokyo, Japan. According to Cebu Pacific, this brand new airplane can accommodate 459 passengers. 

Most Filipinos who’ve taken Cebu Pacific to nearby Asian destinations are probably familiar with the Airbus A321neo or the Airbus A320ceo (current engine option). The former can carry 236 passengers while the latter can transport 180 passengers.  

Thus, the A330neo can fit 223 more passengers than the Airbus A321neo, and 279 more passengers than the A320ceo. 

Since this new plane can carry more people, this translates to a lower carbon footprint per passenger. The A330neo burns 15% less fuel per flight, and also makes 60% less noise, says Cebu Pacific, making it one of the “quietest cabins developed by Airbus.” 

One of the things I liked about the A330neo was that all seats had USB A/C ports which I could use to charge my mobile phone. 

Cebu Pacific is doing what every business enterprise worth its salt should be doing: buying or investing in assets that will make the company more productive. Productivity is key to business growth, and vice-versa. 

Cebu Pacific reported last January 15 that it carried 2.6 million passengers in December 2024, 31% higher than in December 2023. Domestic passengers grew 32% while international passenger traffic went up 29.5%. In total, Cebu Pacific’s passenger load for 2024 reached 24.5 million, a 17.6% hike from the 20.9 million in 2023. 

Terminal capacity

But there’s an unfortunate development that comes with having more modern planes that use an aging airport terminal such as the NAIA Terminal 3 (T3). Since November 2024, all of Cebu Pacific’s 5J flights, both domestic and international, now use T3. 

These larger planes which carry more passengers use NAIA Terminal 3 waiting areas beside the gates that weren’t built to serve that many travelers. This was clearly visible as I waited for my flight to depart. There weren’t enough seats in the waiting area of the gates for over 400 passengers. Thus, a number of them had to sit on the floor or stand while waiting.

One of the big problems of NAIA Terminal 3 (as well as the other terminals) is its limited number of toilets. This doesn’t so much affect men as it does women. The problem appears to have gotten worse based on what I saw. The waiting time for women at one of the toilets near the waiting area was around 10 to 15 minutes. 

It’s also possible that having planes that carry more passengers is adding to the long queue at the NAIA T3 immigration counters. When I left last January 17, even though all the counters were manned, it took quite a long time — around 30 to 40 minutes — to clear immigration at around 5:30 in the morning. Even the special lane for senior citizens and persons with disability took quite a while. The Bureau of Immigration has to add more personnel to reduce waiting time. The Philippine Travel Information System or etravel app doesn’t seem to be helping. 

You can’t blame Cebu Pacific or the other airlines that are upgrading their fleet for this predicament. The Philippines simply needs new airports, and even though the new NAIA operator, New NAIA Infra Corporation (NNIC), has introduced some notable changes (e.g. better wifi, faster entry and exit of cars to the terminal, more food concessionaires) since the new consortium led by San Miguel Corporation chief Ramon Ang took over last September, there’s really not much the new operator can do quickly to expand the NAIA T3’s capacity.

Ang said last November that NAIA has “long been operating way beyond its intended capacity of 35 million passengers per year” — around 10 to 15 million more travelers since the airport now handles 45 million to 50 million yearly.

The NNIC, however, said on January 2, 2025, that it has “steadily managed increasing passenger volumes while introducing operational improvements.”

In particular, NNIC said that during the peak holiday travel period from December 30, 2024 to January 1, 2025, it had an average On-Time Performance of 83.36%. NAIA handled 50 million passengers in 2024, up 5% from the previous high in 2019 and 10.4% higher than in 2023.

Ang has vowed to expand NAIA’s T3’s capacity from 14 million to 25 million, and the Philippine Village Hotel is also going to be demolished to have land for a bigger NAIA Terminal 2. But these aren’t going to happen anytime soon. Ang is also building the New Manila International Airport in Bulacan, but this is expected to be completed in 2038, 13 years from now. That’s a pretty long wait.

So, you can’t really blame travelers who use NAIA for saying that nothing much has changed based on their experience — it’s still a “third world airport,” as a netizen commented on Rappler’s story last December on the changes there since Ang’s consortium took over. – Rappler.com