Exclusive | Japan overtakes Hong Kong as Cebu Pacific’s top destination

Japan has overtaken Hong Kong’s long-standing status as the most-travelled destination on Cebu Pacific, the Philippines’ largest airline, even though it flew a record number of Filipino visitors to the city last year, the carrier’s president has told the Post.

In an interview, the budget airline’s president and chief commercial officer Alexander Lao forecast robust passenger growth for the current year after the firm rolled out two new routes to Hong Kong at the end of last year – Davao and Iloilo – in an expansion of its international reach to boost traffic between the city and the Philippines.

He said he expected to generate double-digit passenger growth between Hong Kong and the Philippines this year as the carrier banked on its expanded destinations with affordable fares to woo visitors.

In the first quarter, the airline carried more than 312,000 passengers between the Philippines and Hong Kong, a 9 per cent year-on-year increase. The firm had 1.13 million passengers between the two places last year, a jump of 34 per cent from over 840,000 in 2023.

“We are the airline that has the most connections – five places – between the Philippines and Hong Kong … Traditionally, Hong Kong has been our largest market, but it was overtaken by Japan last year as there was also a record number of Filipino nationals visiting the country,” he said.

“There’s room to grow even faster. If you take a look at our overall growth in passenger traffic, which is 20 per cent plus, we normally see it in the double digits.”