Cebu Air, the operator of low-cost carriers Cebu Pacific and Cebgo, said net income jumped 138.4 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, on the back of strong passenger and cargo revenues. The airline unit of the Gokongwei Group said it posted a net income of P3.4 billion from January to March, up from P1.4 billion it earned in the same period last year. Revenues increased 16 percent in the three-month period to P21.17 billion from P18.26 billion it generated a year earlier.
Passenger revenues increased 14.6 percent to P15.67 billion from P13.67 billion. The increase was attributed to the 8.5-percent growth in passenger volume to 5.289 million from 4.876 million last year as the group added bigger A321 aircraft to its fleet. The average fare went up 5.7 percent to P2,965 in the first quarter from P2,805 a year ago, contributing to the higher revenues. Cargo revenues grew 12.7 percent to P1.44 billion from P1.279 billion following the increase in both yield and volume of cargo transported in 2019. Operating expenses went up 8.4 percent to P17.34 billion from P15.997 billion a year ago.
Cebu Air said the increase was driven by expanded operations, growth in seat capacity from the acquisition of new aircraft and the weakening of the Philippine peso against the US dollar. The peso depreciated to 52.36 per US dollar in the first quarter from an average of 51.49 a dollar last year. Flying operations expenses increased 3.8 percent to P7.173 billion from P6.910 billion. “This was mainly accounted for by the increase in pilot training costs,” CEB said. Fuel expenses also went up as the fuel volume increased by 7.9 percent in the quarter. The MOPS price of fuel slightly went down to $76.50 per barrel in the first quarter from $79.99 a barrel in the same period last year.