Cebu Pacific follows PAL by suspending international flight services

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Cebu Pacific is following the lead of PAL by suspending flight services

Cebu Pacific is following the lead of Philippines Airlines (PAL) by suspending flight services to the Middle East.

The budget airline announced today that services to Kuwait, Riyadh and Doha are “no longer sustainable”.

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In a disclosure to the the Philippine Stock Exchange, Vice President for Corporate Affairs J R Mantaring said: “The entry of Cebu Pacific into these markets benefited passengers with lower fares and more choices.

“Of late, other carriers have aggressively added more flights, which has resulted in substantial oversupply of seats and fares that are so low, hence making the routes unsustainable.

“We have to continuously review our routes to ensure their viability. At this point, it makes more sense for us to re-deploy the aircraft used for our Riyadh, Doha and Kuwait service to routes where we can further stimulate demand and sustain our low fare offers.”

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Yesterday, we reported that national carrier PAL was suspending flights between Manila and Abu Dhabi as part of a “route reassessment”.

The airline has also recently announced the suspension of its only trans-Pacific service flying out of Cebu to Los Angeles.

The decision came just weeks after the airline had announced “exciting plans” for “better services, and more routes”.

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Today, Cebu said the last four-times-a-week flight to Kuwait will be June 13, while the final return trip will be on June 14.

The thrice-weekly Manila-Doha-Manila route will have its last flight on July 1.

The last flight from Manila to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will depart on July 2, while the final Riyadh-Manila flight will leave on July 3.

“We will retain our other long-haul services to and from Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Sydney with a view to increasing frequencies to these destinations in the future,” the airline said.

Passengers affected by the cancellations will be contacted. They will have the option to either rebook flights with other airlines or opt for earlier travel dates. They may also request a full refund, or transfer the value of their ticket to another flight.