Cebgo Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cebu Pacific, is seeking a permit from the Civil Aeronautics Board to operate cargo operations between Manila and Hong Kong.
The airline filed a petition before the CAB for designation as an official Philippine carrier to operate all-cargo services and allocation of entitlements to Hong Kong under the Philippines and Hong Kong airs services agreement.
The CAB set the hearing on November 4.
“Parties/airlines opposed to the granting of this application must file their written opposition on or before the said date,” CAB said.
“Failure on the part of any interested party to file their opposition on time shall be construed as a waiver of their rights to be heard and the CAB shall proceed to hear and decide the application on its merits,” it added.
Cebu Pacific earlier took delivery of its first ATR 72-500 aircraft converted from passenger to cargo use.
The ATR aircraft is equipped with a Large Cargo Door, allowing a load of up to seven Ld3 air cargo containers, or five PBJ pallets. The freighter has capacity to carry as much as eight tons of cargo.
The conversion was performed at the Sabena Technics DNR S.A.S. facility in Dinard, France.
The freighter, the first of two passenger aircraft that Cebu Pacific is converting for full cargo use, will be operated by the airline’s subsidiary Cebgo.
The second ATR 72-500 freighter is expected to be delivered in late-2019.
The aircraft is suited to landing and taking-off in airports with runways less than 1.2 kilometers long—which is too short for jet aircraft. Only about one-third of the 90 airports in the Philippines can land jets.
Cebu Pacific has about 50 percent market share on domestic air cargo, currently utilizing the belly space of its passenger aircraft fleet.
Revenues from Cebu Pacific’s cargo operations reached P2.8 billion in the first half of 2019, up 7 percent year-on-year, after flying over 101 million kilograms of goods.