‘Not our DNA’: Cebu Pacific rules out long-haul foray

Cebu Pacific chief Mike Szucs has ruled out venturing into long-haul operations, even as he acknowledges the “best fare growth” seen on these routes in a post-pandemic operating environment. Speaking during a results briefing on 10 May, Szucs points out that because of under-capacity on some of these routes, which include trans-Pacific flights from the Philippines to North America, yields have gone up, allowing operators like compatriot Philippine Airlines to reap profits. “There is that temptation to [want to] go in there and get some high yields. But we feel at some point there will be inevitable [market] correction,” he says. “It is not what we do…it is not our DNA,” Szucs adds. The low-cost carrier will focus its operations on what Szucs calls a “four-hour circle” from the Philippines, which refers to flights of about four hours from the country, offering it a catchment of over 2 billion people. “We’ve got plenty of addressable markets…very close to home that doesn’t stretch or challenge the business model that we have been accustomed to,” he says. Szucs was responding to a question on whether the long-haul market was something Cebu Pacific was eyeing, especially as other low-cost operators like India’s IndiGo step up to widebody long-range operations. <br/>