The numbers say it all.
Just how successful the Clark International Airport (code: CRK) is in bringing back the flights. Cebu Pacific, for one, is chalking up upward in its in passenger, routes, and hub seats sold.
Imagine a chart – whether a line, graph or even pie – they all have point up figures. Cebu Pacific’s Clark hub is pushing the numbers from a modest base number to an escalating rate. And it is continuing.
For passenger movement, by end of December this year, it projects that a total of 1.3 million passengers would be flown by the most aggressive Philippine carrier. This is an already 30 percent increase of the 1 million it has flown in 2019 or right before the COVID 19 pandemic. When Cebu Pacific launched its Clark hub in 2008, it only had moved about 60,000 passengers
For number of flights, it will be posting a 49 percent increase between the yearends of 2024 (7K) and 2025 (11K). For seats sold, there will be a 25 percent increase also for the same levels – 1.4 million versus 1.7 million.
The number of destinations or routes it has to and from CRK are also on the rise. There are 16 in total – 14 domestic and 2 international. The latest are offering are flights to Naga City (4x weekly starting October 26) and San Jose, Mindoro (3x weekly starting October 28). In early part of this year, it has launched flights to Coron, El Nido, Mabate and Siargao.
On seats offering, there has been a stratospheric rise between figures representing January to October this year (1.3 million) versus same period of 2024. It was a whopping 411 percent increase (yes, 3-digit figure that is. Not 41, not 11, just in case one may ask if I did not misread or if I erred writing it down here).
Accordingly, the number of flights have also increased too. For the first 10 months of this year, Cebu Pacific mounted 8,500 flights or 60 percent rise from year-ago level of a little less than 5,300 flights.
The only thing that is on a downward path are ticket prices.
Cebu Pacific says that a flier can have as much as 33 percent savings on some of its flights from Clark. A comparison of one-way all-in fare, in their lowest level, show that a trip to Catclan (Boracay) is P500 peso lower in Clark than if you take it from Manila. For Bangkok, the same lower price could be had – P3,920 in CRK while Naia is P4,310. The same lower rates could be said of other destinations like Coron, Iloilo, Naga, Puerto Pinces and Singapore.
Needless to say, Cebu Pacific is happy with its Clark Hub. Who wouldn’t be when they operate in one of the world’s most beautiful airports, a recognition given by an international body. They enjoy support too from both the private sector particularly the Luzon Premier International Airport Development. Government agencies like the Bases Conversion Development Authority, Clark International Airport Corporation and Clark Development Corporation.
They too have upped the ante for CRK.
