In a report by Thomson Financial, government figures revealed that Philippine budget carrier, Cebu Pacific carried more passengers in 2007 than the national Philippine Airlines (PAL).
According to the Philippine Civil Aeronautics Board, Cebu Pacific carried 430,000 more domestic passengers than PAL in 2007. At 4.46 million domestic passengers, Cebu Pacific enjoyed a whopping 47 percent increase in traffic over 2006.
While Cebu Pacific and PAL both enjoyed higher load factors, Cebu Pacific’s 2008 full year load factor was 83 percent – five points higher than PAL’s domestic load factor of 78 percent.
Meanwhile, Cebu Air CEO Lance Gokongwei said that the carrier was expecting to carry seven million passengers in 2008. This is a 28 percent increase on the 5.5 million passengers it carried in 2007.