Vibrant leisure traffic and sustained labor travel among overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) prompted Cebu Pacific to increase its Dubai flights to 10 times weekly.
This was a 30 percent flight frequency increase compared to an average of 7 flights a week in the pre-pandemic period.
Speaking in the pilot episode of ‘Global Leaders Talk with Dr. Karen Remo’, CEB Chief Commercial Officer Xander Lao shares that this is part of the airline’s strategic move to boost its international network and address rising demand for travel to Dubai.
“Demand has continued to be strong. I think there’s a lot of interest to go to Dubai, both for leisure and for the overseas Filipino population there,” Lao tells Dr. Remo, CEO and Managing Director of New Perspective Media.
Lao highlights in the interview that the airline’s frequency increase to the emirate is an outturn of the ease of flight restrictions in Dubai, economic resurgence, as well as the uptick in leisure travel paved by Expo 2020 Dubai.
The CEB official also recalls the impact of COVID-19 on their operation and the entire aviation industry at a time when aircraft were grounded for months.
For the most part of 2020, Cebu Pacific was only permitted to conduct a limited number of ‘Bayanihan flights’ to Dubai due to strict safety border measures. The flights were the airline’s response to the Philippine government’s call to bring home stranded OFWs in the Middle East.
Dubai, which was the first destination of Cebu Pacific’s inaugural long-haul flight launch in October 2013, stands as the top OFW destination in the UAE, where an estimated 1 million Filipinos currently reside and work in.
The Global Leaders Talk episode featuring Lao also touches upon the company’s toughest decisions, daunting economic consequences of COVID-19, recalibration strategies, and future plans of Cebu Pacific.
Watch the pilot episode of “Global Leaders Talk with Dr. Karen Remo” below:
