CEBU Pacific plans to use most of its 2026 capital expenditures on new aircraft, its top official said late on Friday.
“I cannot currently discuss the capex details, but we will mostly be using it for our seven aircraft deliveries in 2026,” Cebu Pacific President and Chief Commercial Officer Xander Lao said.
The budget carrier last month said that it planned to add seven new aircraft to its fleet this year: five narrow-body jets and two wide-body aircraft. It also announced that it was opening direct flights between Manila and Riyadh beginning March.
Other than strengthening its fleet, Lao said the airline planned to focus on developing the new Manila-Riyadh flights and other routes that were recently opened.
“It is really important for us to be focusing on the routes that we have and the hubs that we opened back in 2024. So, we will be strengthening, for example, [our hubs in] Cebu, Clark, Iloilo, and Davao as we are seeing good progress with them in terms of international connections,” Lao said.
He also said that while the airline was targeting growing its passenger capacity by six to 10 percent this year, challenges remained, including a weak peso and engine supply chain issues.
“On that note, we have learned a lot of lessons from last year, especially our engine supply chain challenges, so we have already baked in some conservatism in our planning and anticipated that,” he said.
“[T]he weakening peso is a concern, as I think roughly 70 percent of our costs are in US dollars, so I think we would have to make adjustments to our pricing,” Lao added.
“However, we have invested in overseas distribution so we are seeing more sales coming from abroad starting to come in, so this development can offset that challenge.”
“Another factor will be capacity itself,” he went on, adding that “the news of visa-free travel for Indonesians and Chinese passengers to the Philippines is definitely welcome news.”
Cebu Pacific flew 26.878 million passengers in 2025, a 9.5-percent increase from the 24.54 million passengers flown in 2024. Seat capacity last year stood at 31.989 million, up 10 percent from 29.085 million in 2024.
Shares of Cebu Air Inc., the operator of Cebu Pacific, closed at P33.00 each on Friday, down by P0.45.
