The Philippine air travel industry soared in 2023, with passenger numbers returning to pre-pandemic levels, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) said Monday.
Data from the CAB showed that domestic passenger traffic reached 28.96 million last year, up 28 percent from 22.50 million in 2022.
Cebu Pacific remained the country’s leading domestic passengers with 12.86 million in 2023, higher than 11.39 million in 2022.
This was followed by PAL Express with 7.77 million domestic passengers, Philippine AirAsia with 4.8 million, Cebgo with 2.24 million domestic passengers and Philippine Airlines with 734,249.
AirSwift Transport Inc. carried 350,458 and Royal Air Charter Services Inc. had 104,473 domestic passengers.
International passenger traffic reached 21.21 million last year, up from 9.83 million in 2022. Of the total, domestic airlines carried 9.75 million international passengers, while foreign carriers flew 11.46 million,
PAL carried the most international passengers with 5.52 million, followed by Cebu Pacific with 2.98 million, Philippines AirAsia with 1.14 million and Royal Air Charter Service with 94,205 passengers.
Meanwhile, domestic cargo traffic reached 237.53 million kilograms last year, up from 195.19 million kg. in 2022.
Cebu Pacific carried 92.01 million kg. of cargo, followed by PAL Express with 85.01 million kg., Philippines Air Asia with 26.29 million kg., PAL with 24.59 million kg. and Cebgo with 1.64 million kg.