CEBU will soon see more Chinese carriers flying in and out of its airport, as three foreign carriers are scheduled to launch flights starting this month, the operator of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) said on Monday.
Louie B. Ferrer, who sits as president at GMR Megawide Cebu Airport Corp. (GMCAC), listed the three carriers as China Eastern, Juneyao Airlines and Okay Airways, noting that the entry of the Chinese airlines was born out of his group’s marketing initiatives.
China Eastern will have an initial run of seven weekly Shanghai-Cebu-Shanghai flights from October 18 to 28, 2018. It will resume operations on January 18, 2018.
Juneyao Airlines will commence its thrice-weekly Shanghai-Cebu-Shanghai flights on October 30, the same day that Okay Airways will launch its thrice-weekly flights to China’s historic city of Xi’an.
When these have all started, the airport will serve a total of 18 international destinations and 35 domestic destinations.
“Promoting the province and its surrounding areas to other Asian countries, especially China, is among our highest priorities,” Ferrer said. “Studies have shown that China is the highest-spending tourist market in the world—we want to bring this high-spending Chinese market to Cebu.”
According to data from the Department of Tourism, visitors from China spend an average of P79,420 for a consecutive two-month visit to the Philippines. In June China placed second— next to South Korea—in the top-spenders ranking at P5.25 billion.
Ferrer said Chinese are particularly fond of Cebu because it is a tropical destination packed with locals who can communicate well in English. He added that the secret to getting new carriers to fly out of Cebu is the company’s destination-marketing strategy.
“We have seen outstanding results from our destination-marketing initiatives these past three years, but this is only the beginning. We are looking to promote Cebu to other untapped markets, and this includes other provinces in China. Australia and other Southeast Asian countries, like Thailand, are also high on our list,” he said.
Ferrer added that his group is also targeting to launch new flights to North Asia, the Middle East, North America and Europe. The airport will also open more domestic flights later in the year, he said.
“We are very excited by these developments. As Cebu’s tourism grows, so will the airport. We are working round the clock to ensure that the MCIA is capable of handling the increasing number of passengers this will bring,” he said.
Through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program, GMCAC took over operations of Cebu airport in November 2014, when the hub only had seven international and 23 domestic destinations.
Since then, the company has undertaken major renovations to improve passenger comfort at the existing terminal.
It is also in the midst of building a new terminal at the airport, which will increase its capacity to 12.5 million passengers per year. The new terminal is slated open in June 2018.