LONDON – Cebu Pacific Air, one of the Philippines’ leading and favourite low-cost airlines will now re-fly to Sydney Australia. This signals that travel is recovering, a much-awaited phenomenon for the airline to hear after flying domestic routes.
The ‘re-expansion’ of its international Asia Pacific route to Australia commenced on the 1st of July. This great news follows the further relaxation of border restrictions between Australia and the Philippines.
The airline will fly between the two cities of Manila and Sydney thrice weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The flight to Sydney bears flight number 5J39 which leaves Manila at 11:20 PM and lands at Sydney Kingsford Smith at 9:50 on the following day.
After a 2 hours stop, the aircraft then returns as flight 5J40 which leaves Sydney at 11:20 AM and will land in Manila at 5:50 PM every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Xander Lao, Chief Commercial Officer at Cebu Pacific, said: “With this route resumption, we are pleased to fly once again to and from this destination after more than two years.”
“We know that many are excited to visit Sydney’s attractions like the Sydney Opera House, Harbour Bridge, Bondi Beach, Taronga Zoo and many more. This also allows Filipinos to reunite with friends and family. We will continue working on boosting seamless connections across our network to address demand.”
Cebu Pacific of course is known for their cheap tickets. The airline will allow ‘everyJuan’ (it’s the quirky catchphrase for marketing purposes) to fly to Sydney for as low as 8,999 Philippines Pesos, which is around $160 USD.
This new fare was made available for prospective flyers from the 1st of July to the 6th of July. Passengers will need to travel from the 1st of February up until the 30th of June 2023. In the later travel period from the 1st of August to 31st 20222 of January 2023, fares will be slightly higher at 9,999 Philippines Pesos or $180 USD -.
Sydney is one of the most lucrative destinations for lots of Asian carriers, as the airport has a high degree of a strong catchment area, fuelled by business and those with high purchasing power.
Tens of thousands of Australians visit the Philippines each year prior to Covid19 and the launch of the new route will also assist the tourism sector of the Philippines.
Moreover, there are many Filipino diasporas and OFW (overseas Filipino workers) in Australia working in the service centre will also make use of the newly launched Cebu Pacific flight as airfares are lower than other airlines such as Qantas and the national flag carrier, Philippines Airlines.
With most of the border restrictions removed, this means that passengers can travel seamlessly between two countries. Cebu Pacific is more than glad to have this route restarted as this brings a very high-profit margin to the airline.
