The airline carried 2.1 million passengers in August 2025, down 0.4 percent from a year earlier as the lean travel season slowed domestic demand, though seat load factor improved to 83.7 percent from 81.3 percent last year.
Lean August, stronger Q4 outlook
“We see this as an expected and temporary dip, with traffic rebounding in the fourth quarter as peak travel season begins and aircraft availability improves,” said Mike Szucs, Cebu Pacific CEO.
From January to August, Cebu Pacific flew 18.1 million passengers, a 15.2 percent increase from 15.7 million in 2024.
Domestic traffic rose 14 percent to 13.5 million, while international passengers jumped 18.8 percent to 4.6 million.
Seat capacity expanded 15.1 percent to 21.3 million, with average load factor at 85.2 percent.
Fleet crunch
“We moderated our domestic capacity growth in August due to some unscheduled engine removals, the flyadeal wet-lease, and scheduled maintenance events in preparation for the busy holiday months,” Szucs noted.
“These actions enable our capacity to be optimized so that we can deliver higher growth in the fourth quarter to coincide with the anticipated strong demand,” he said.
Cebu Pacific earlier cut its full-year growth target after more than a tenth of its fleet was grounded by a global engine supply crunch.
It now expects to carry about two million fewer passengers this year than initially planned, trimming its capacity growth target to 15 percent from as much as 25 percent.
—Edited by Miguel R. Camus
