Cebu Air Inc., the operator of low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific, said Thursday it rebounded from last year’s loss to post a net profit of P3.73 billion in the first half of 2023.
The airline unit of the Gokongwei Group said this was a reversal of the P9.5-billion net loss it incurred in the same period last year.
The group recorded revenues amounting to P43.551 billion, or 110.6 percent higher than P20.68 billion a year ago.
“The overall increase in revenues was primarily driven by significant increase in passenger volume and flight activities due to the increased demand for travel,” CEB said.
“Additionally, for the six months ended June 30, 2023, most parts of the country continued to be under a more relaxed alert level classification, which enabled the group to resume to its regular pre-pandemic services,” it said.
The airline’s passenger revenues amounted to P30.12 billion in the first half, up 158.2 percent from P11.66 billion last year.
Cebu Pacific attributed the growth in revenues to the 63.3-percent increase in passenger volume from 6.3 million to 10.3 million passengers.
Cargo revenues amounted to P1.99 billion, down by 33 percent from P3.57 billion on lower cargo kilograms flown and lower yield from cargo services.
The group incurred operating expenses of P39.79 billion in the first half, higher by 38 percent than P28.838 billion last year.
“This was mostly driven by the increase in group’s operations due to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions since a material portion of its expenses are based on flights and flight hours,” CEB said.
Flying operations expenses amounted to P16.77 billion, also up 57.6 percent from P10.64 billion in the same period last year.
“This was largely accounted for by higher fuel consumption by 71.4 percent in line with the increased flight activity during the period, which was slightly offset with the decrease in average published fuel MOPS price to $99.26 per barrel from $129.49 per barrel for the six months ended June 30, 2022,” Cebu Pacific said.