Earlier today, Airbus has announced that Cebu Pacific has firmed up an order for sixteen A330neo aircraft, a purchase previously agreed on in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The MoU also sees the Philippine low-cost airline buy ten A321XLRs and five A320neos.
Cebu Pacific’s Airbus A330neo Order
Airbus and Cebu Pacific signed an MoU for a total of 31 aircraft back in June 2019. Included in the agreement were 16 A330-900neos, 10 A321XLRs, and 5 A320 neos.
According to the press release announcing the MoU, it was part of the airline’s “ongoing fleet renewal program, which aims to have only new generation, environmentally efficient aircraft by 2024.”
While the narrow-body order has not been finalized yet, on November 4, 2019, the two parties have announced that the 16 A330neos-strong wide-body order has been finalized.
Lance Gokongwei, Cebu Pacific President and CEO said about the order:
The A330neo is integral to our fleet modernisation program. With this purchase, we aim to reduce our fuel emission and build a more sustainable operation. This will also give us the lowest cost per seat, at the same time enabling CEB to increase seat capacity and maximize valuable airport slots in Manila and other Asian megacities.
While part of the low cost per seat will be due to the increased fuel efficiency of the A330neo, part of it will also be due to the airline’s very dense configuration. The A330neos will be in an all-economy configuration featuring 460 seats.
The seats will be in a 3-3-3, 9-abreast arrangement. Cebu Pacific, together with AirAsia X, is one of the few airlines that operate the A330 in this layout rather than the standard 2-4-2, 8-abreast configuration.
Christian Scherer, the Chief Commercial Officer of Airbus, commented that:
The increased capacity version of the aircraft developed for Cebu Pacific will help achieve even greater efficiencies for high density regional and long range routes.
Cebu Pacific plans to use the new aircraft on high-demand domestic and regional routes as well as on its long-haul routes. Those currently include Dubai in the United Arab Emirates as well as Sydney and Melbourne in Australia.
Considering that the airline currently operates eight A330-300s, the new aircraft will allow Cebu Pacific not only to modernize its existing wide-body fleet but also expand considerably.
Summary
While this order has been announced a few months back when it was at the MoU stage, it is good to see it confirmed. Once all the aircraft are delivered (and the A330-300s retired), Cebu Pacific’s wide-body fleet will double from its current eight to sixteen aircraft.
As such, it will be interesting to see where the airline will deploy them and what new long-haul routes it will launch.
Personally, however, I am more curious about whether the A321XLR order will go through. With its relatively small capacity but quite long range, I find the aircraft to be intriguing. Just like with IndiGo and VietJet, it could open up many possibilities for Cebu Pacific.
