Cebu Pacific orders 37 new Airbus aircrafts

The Philippines’ largest national flag carrier ordered 30 new Airbus A321neo and 7 A320 aircrafts valued at US$3.8 billion, the largest single aircraft order ever made by a Philippine carrier.

CEB turned into firm orders its existing options for 7 Airbus A320 aircraft, and has placed a new order for thirty (30) A321neo (New Engine Option) aircraft with options for a further ten (10) A321neos. The A321neos will be a first of its type to operate in the Philippines, being a larger and longer-haul version of the familiar Airbus A320.

The said orders for A320 and A321neo aircraft will be delivered between 2015 and 2021. These are on top of firm orders for 18 Airbus A320 aircraft to be delivered from the 2nd half of 2011 until 2014. This increases Cebu Pacific’s total firm orders of Airbus aircraft to 55.

“Cebu Pacific has made the largest firm order for the Airbus A321neo aircraft in the world. These 220-seater aircraft will be a real ‘game changer’ for Cebu Pacific because the A321neo will have a much longer range. We will be able to serve cities in Australia, India and Northern Japan, places the A320 cannot reach,” said CEB CEO and President Lance Gokongwei.

“The aircraft will reduce our unit cost per seat to a level that cannot be achieved flying A320s. This means that Cebu Pacific will be able to offer even lower fares to our guests and be much more competitive with anyone flying less cost efficient aircraft. This will allow us to create highly skilled, highly paid airline jobs for Filipino pilots, cabin crew and airline staff,” added Gokongwei.

Cebu Pacific currently utilizes 33 brand-new aircraft, 25 of which are from the Airbus A320 family and 8 ATR turbo-prop aircraft. By 2021, CEB will more than double its fleet and triple its capacity.

John Leahy, Airbus Chief Operating Officer, Customers, said, "With the A321neo, Cebu Pacific will be able to fly more people further at significantly lower cost per seat than any other competing aircraft, and with less impact on the environment."

The A321neo is the largest model in the recently launched A320neo series. It incorporates new engines and large wing-tip devices called sharklets, allowing CEB to achieve 15% reduced fuel burn, and function on a lower operating cost.

The new engine types offered on the A320neo are CFM International’s LEAP-X and Pratt & Whitney’s PurePower PW1100G. Cebu Pacific has not made an engine choice at this time.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia