The budget airline carried 1.91 million passengers during the month, up 4.4 percent from a year earlier, while filling 83.5 percent of available seats compared with 81.1 percent previously.
“Despite September traditionally being a lean travel month in the Philippines, we saw encouraging demand across our domestic network, particularly on key trunk routes. Internationally, we continued to manage capacity selectively in response to elevated fuel prices,” Cebu Pacific president and chief commercial officer Xander Lao said in a statement on Thursday.
Domestic routes carry growth
Domestic passenger traffic rose 7.4 percent to 1.48 million as the airline added 6.2 percent more seats, while international traffic fell 5.1 percent to 424,000 passengers after capacity was cut by 11.5 percent.
The tighter overseas capacity nevertheless helped Cebu Pacific fill 79.3 percent of its international seats, up from 73.9 percent a year earlier.
For the first nine months, Cebu Pacific carried nearly 20.8 million passengers, up 4.1 percent, putting the airline on course to surpass last year's passenger volume.
Domestic travelers accounted for 15.7 million passengers, up 5.5 percent, while international traffic was virtually unchanged at 5.1 million.
The airline's overall seat occupancy averaged 82.1 percent during the nine-month period, down from 84.8 percent as capacity expanded 7.6 percent to 25.3 million seats.
—Edited by Miguel R. Camus
