Cebu Pacific, the budget carrier of listed Cebu Air Inc. of the Gokongwei Group, said Friday it was informed by Pratt and Whitney of a condition that will affect the maintenance of engines that power its Airbus A320/321 NEO fleet, a development that will undermine its growth prospects next year.
“There is no immediate impact on our operations, but we expect that this will affect our fleet availability in 2024,” Cebu Air told the Philippine Stock Exchange. “We anticipate that a number of the aircraft will be affected next year by the recent announcement and as such the growth rate for 2024 will be revised downwards.”
Cebu Air, the airline arm of the Gokongwei Group, expects to end this year with a fleet of 76 aircraft. That number is expected to grow to 91 aircraft in 2024. A total 25 of the jets are Airbus planes powered by P&W engines.
Cebu Air assures the public the P&W issue—which it didn’t detail—“is not a safety issue.” It said the accelerated fleet inspection will ensure the continued safe operation of the P&W fleet.
“P&W understands the importance of its partnership with Cebu Pacific and has committed to work closely with us to minimize any potential impact that this issue may have on our operations,” the budget carrier said. “Given the complexity of the situation in the near-term, P&W assured us that it has aligned the expertise and resources needed and will work with its partners to resolve things as efficiently as possible,” it added.
At the end of the first half of this year, Cebu Air saw passenger volume surge 63 percent to 10.3 million as the number of flights climbed nearly 48 percent year-on-year. The load factor rose to 84.8 percent from 74.6 percent in the year-earlier period.
Cebu Air said it already took a focused approach to manage supply chain and operational challenges facing the industry.
“In recent months, we have put in place substantial contingency measures with current on-time-performance levels reaching as high as 90 percent,” the airline said.
