“For Hawaii, the target is early next year but once we have the necessary approvals, we will make the announcement,” Cebu Air President and Chief Executive Officer Lance Y. Gokongwei told reporters on the sidelines of the first Philippine Aviation Summit at The Peninsula Manila in Makati City on Friday.
The operator of Cebu Pacific Air and Cebgo is working to secure the regulatory approvals for Honolulu as well as Guam within the year, it said in an e-mail reply on Sept. 10.
“We think it’s an attractive market because there’s a lot of Filipinos in Hawaii, and possibly there’s a lot of connecting traffic from Honolulu to the West Coast,” Mr. Gokongwei said.
“Using Manila as a hub, probably a lot of North Asian countries can connect to Manila with direct flights from Honolulu.”
Cebu Air secured approval to fly to the US in April 2014, after the Federal Aviation Authority upgraded the country’s aviation rating to Category 1. The airline is permitted to fly to Guam, Saipan, Honolulu, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Asked about the firm’s third-quarter performance, Mr. Gokongwei said it is “ahead of last year,” but declined to disclose figures.
The airline’s net loss had widened by an annual 46% to P1.098 billion in the July to September 2014 period, according to its financial report to the stock exchange.
Mr. Gokongwei added that “there’s a very good possibility that we’ll meet, if not exceed” its 18-million passenger volume target this year.
For the first seven months, Cebu Air ferried 10.7 million passengers — up by 8.6% year on year. It has yet to release August passenger data.
The airline, which currently serves 63 destinations on 97 routes, said its first-half net income amounted to P5.2 billion — a 63.65% jump from 2014’s comparable period. Operating revenue improved by 10.44% to P29.51 billion.
Shares in the company shed P1.80 or 2.04% to end Thursday’s trading at P86.50 apiece.