Cebu Air Inc., the operator of budget carrier Cebu Pacific, said profit fell 68 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, on costlier jet fuel prices, weak peso and fewer passengers.
The airline company owned by tycoon John Gokongwei said net income in January to March amounted to P1.28 billion, down from P4.04 billion it registered in the same period last year.
Revenues rose 4.7 percent in the first quarter to P16.86 billion from P16.11 billion a year earlier. Passenger revenues alone grew 2.1 percent to P12.28 billion from P12.02 billion.
The revenue increase was attributed to the 2.6-percent rise in average fare to P2,551 in the three-month period from P2,486 a year ago. This was partially offset by a 0.5-percent decrease in passenger volume.
Cargo revenues went up 21.3 percent to P1.01 billion from P836.43 million last year.
Cebu Pacific incurred operating expenses of P14.3 billion in the first quarter, up by 20.3 percent from P11.89 billion last year.
The airline linked the higher expenses to the rise in fuel prices in 2017 coupled with the weakening peso against the US dollar which dropped to an average of P50 per dollar from an average of P47.27 a dollar last year.
Flying operations expenses increased 34 percent to P5.99 billion from P4.47 billion last year because of the 36.7-percent growth in aviation fuel expenses to P4.99 billion from P3.60 billion.
Jet fuel prices went up to $64.44 per barrel in the first quarter from $42.10 a barrel a year ago.
Cebu Pacific group was operating 62 domestic routes and 41 international routes with a total of 2,870 scheduled weekly flights as of end-March.
It had a fleet of 59 aircraft including four Airbus A319, 36 Airbus A320, seven Airbus A330, eight ATR 72-500 aircraft and four ATR 72-600.