Philippine records boom domestic air transport

The Philippine domestic air travel industry continued to post significant gains in the third quarter of the year, owing largely to the drop in plane fares due to the country's vibrant budget carrier sector. The Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) reported on Monday that the number of passengers travelling by air within the Philippines rose by 14 percent to 14.02 million in the first nine months of the year. The number of seats offered by airlines also rose by 16 percent to 18.007 million, up from 15.471 million last year. The Cebu Pacific airlines stayed at the top with 6.17 million passengers, up slightly from 5.99 million last year. Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) posted a sharp drop in passenger volume for the nine-month period to 3.44 million, down 16 percent year on year. PAL continues to be plagued by labor issues involving ground crew workers strikes. The workers, who had not yet been retrenched then, went on strike in September, forcing the airline to cancel several flights. PAL's operations have not yet normalized till now. However, its sister firm Air Philippines, which now operates as budget carrier AirPhil Express, more than doubled its domestic passenger to 2.71 million, up from 1.122 million. Zest Airways, owned by juice drink tycoon Alfred Yao, also posted healthy gains in the first nine months after its domestic passengers rose to 1.58 million from 902,935 in the same period of last year. Lastly, Southeast Asian Airlines (SEAir) saw its domestic operations fall to 111,525 passengers from 159,086 in the first three quarters.