CEBU Pacific is working to restore more of its flights in other air hubs in the Philippines, such as Clark International Airport, the budget carrier’s president told reporters last week.

“We will be happy to resume flights at Clark and the other destinations we used to fly in,” Xander Lao, president and chief commercial officer, said. “Actually when we said we were back at 100 percent operations, it referred to the seats and not actually to our fleet. From a pacing perspective, we are not there yet. For now, it is a matter of connecting the points and going from there.”

He continued that on whether there is a possibility of moving some of their flights from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to Clark International Airport, he said that they are open to that idea.

“Honestly, we welcome any capacity growth that comes from the market, but I think it should come down to the airlines on where they would want to designate flights to,” the Cebu Pacific president remarked. “We think Clark on its own has a lot of potential as it has around 20 million people in its catchment area, but Clark from Manila is very far as it is around 100 kilometers apart. It will be hard to convince businessmen or some passengers to travel that far to an airport.”

Lao said that it is very good that the government is trying to improve the airport infrastructure in the Philippines, and said that they are excited about its various developments.

“In London, there are seven or eight airports covering the country and this emphasizes the need for ports. Overall, we are excited by the various announcements such as the building of an airport in Bulacan, Sangley and even with the NAIA development,” Lao concluded. “At the end of the day, I hope they will allow the airlines to freely choose which ports to deploy in.”

Prior to the pandemic, Cebu Pacific used to fly international flights from Clark to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Macao and Singapore.

The airline is targeting the resumption of full operations by the end of the first quarter and aims to return to profitability this year with the return to normal travel after the lifting of pandemic restrictions.