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Cebu Air, Inc., operating as Cebu Pacific Air, is a low-cost airline based in Pasay City, Manila, the Philippines. It is one of the Philippines' national flag carriers, offering scheduled flights to both domestic and international destinations. Cebu Pacific Air is currently the country's leading domestic carrier, servicing the most domestic destinations with the largest number flights and routes, and equipped with the youngest fleet. Its main base is Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila, with another hub at Mactan-Cebu International Airport, Francisco Bangoy International Airport and a pending application to make Diosdado Macapagal International Airport its fourth hub.

The airline is a wholly-owned subsidiary of JG Summit Holdings, controlled by the Gokongwei family - one of the richest Filipino-Chinese families based in the Philippines. Cebu Pacific is currently headed by Lance Gokongwei, presumptive heir of John Gokongwei, the chairman emeritus of JG Summit. The company has 1,182 employees (as of March 2007).

History
The airline was established on 26 August 1988 and started operations on March 8, 1996. It was founded as Cebu Air, and subsequently acquired by JG Summit Holdings (owned by John Gokongwei). Domestic services were started following market deregulation by the Philippine government. It temporarily ceased operations in February 1998 after being grounded by the government, but resumed services later the next month following re-certification of its aircraft. It initially started with 24 domestic flights daily among Metro Manila, Metro Cebu, and Davao City. By the end of 2001, its operations has grown to about 80 daily flights to 18 domestic destinations.

In the 2000s, Cebu Pacific was granted rights to operate international flights to the region, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Guam. International flights were launched on November 22 2001 with a twice daily service to Hong Kong. On March 1 2002, it commenced thrice weekly flights to Seoul. Other regional flights were introduced and suspended later, however, including flights to Singapore (from 6 November 2002 to January 2003) and from Manila via Subic to Seoul (from December 2002) due in part to the effects of the SARS epidemic.

The airline resumed its Manila to Singapore flights on August 31,2006 and launched its direct flight from Cebu to Singapore on October 23, 2006, the first low-cost airline to serve the Cebu-Singapore-Cebu sector, and in direct competition with Singapore Airlines' subsidiary SilkAir and Qatar Airways, CEB will be the only Philippine carrier to serve a Cebu-Singapore-Cebu route after PAL terminated its direct service. The airline serves direct flights from Cebu to Hong Kong which started October 2, 2006, which made CEB the only Philippine carrier to serve a Cebu-Hong Kong-Cebu route after PAL terminated its direct service and is now code sharing with Cathay Pacific for this route.

In May 2005 Cebu Pacific received 2 Airbus A320 aircraft on lease from CIT Leasing and operated its first service with the new aircraft on 3 June 2005 from Manila to Davao City.

In December 2006, after a month or two of operating the new direct flights, Cebu Pacific announced that they will be increasing their frequencies in their Cebu-Hong Kong-Cebu from 4 to 5 times weekly and Cebu-Singapore-Cebu flights from 4 to 6 weekly effective 25 January 2007. As of January 2008, it operates regional flights to Busan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul-Incheon, Taipei and Bangkok beginning April 6, 2008 from its Cebu hub; and Bangkok, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Macau, Singapore, Taipei, Seoul-Incheon, Shanghai and Xiamen from Manila.

Cebu Pacific's Plans on beginning International flights from Angeles-Clarks Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) where cut short when the request was unsuccessful. The Countries involved came to an agreement that Cebu Pacific would be only allowed to operate Charter Flights from Clark to the respective countries airport(s). Only Singapore has agreed to allow Cebu Pacific to fly scheduled flights from Diosdado Macapagal International Airport to Singapore. Currently Cebu Pacific only operates a route from Diosdado Macapagal International Airport to Cebu.

In June, 2007, Cebu Pacific announced an order of up to 14 brand new ATR-72-500 aircraft, with 6 Firm orders and 8 options. Cebu Pacific Plans to initially offer flights to Boracay, using Boracay's Godofredo P. Ramos Airport.

On November 12, 2007, Cebu Pacific Announced Davao's Francisco Bangoy International Airport as its 4th hub. Cebu Pacific announced that it will initially fly Internationally from Davao to Singapore, Hong Kong and fly one domestic flight to Iloilo. Both direct services from Davao to Singapore and Iloilo will commence on May 8, 2008 while the service to Hong Kong will start on May 9, 2008.

In late 2007, Cebu Pacific mentioned that it is aiming to cross the Pacific and launch non-stop flights to the United States West Coast, Houston, Texas and Chicago, Illinois by mid 2009. .

On the 18th of December, Cebu Pacific announced that they will use options on their recent ATR-72-500 turboprop order (initially 6 firm) to climb their order up to 10 firm orders of the type.

On February 19, 2008, Cebu Pacific Air received their first delivery of its brand new ATR 72-500 from Toulouse, France and expected to take delivery of another five ATRs from March to December of 2008.

Cebu Pacific Air took delivery of its 16th brand-new Airbus, a 179-seater A320 aircraft from Toulouse, France last March 20, 2008. The arriving aircraft will support CEB's expanding international and domestic operations which include flights to 12, soon to be 15, international destinations.

On May 28, 2008, Cebu Pacific was named as the worlds number one in growth, the fastest growth in the World. The airline was also ranked 5th in Asia for Budget Airline passengers transported and 23rd in the World. The airline carried a total of almost 5.5 million passengers in 2007, up 57.4 per cent from 2006

Destinations
Cebu Pacific flies to 24 domestic destinations, and to 16 international destinations in 8 countries.

Manila

 * Twice weekly service to Hanoi, Vietnam, ends August 17 2008.

Cebu

 * Once weekly service to Bangkok, Thailand, ends July 29 2008.

Fleet
The average Cebu Pacific fleet is less than 20 months old as of March 2008 because of the newly delivered ATR-72. Cebu Pacific is also studying the feasibility of an all-economy configuration of the Airbus A340 to be used in future possible West Coast routes. .

After the route-proving landing of the Airbus A380 MSN009 aircraft at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila last October 11 2007, the low-cost carrier has shown interest in acquiring the double-decker aircraft, but the carrier is still waiting for the delivery of the 20 Airbus A320 aircraft it ordered. If the order for the A380 were to go through, these would make flights to the US more feasible, as an all economy A380 could hold up to 853 passengers and therefore bring down costs.

In April 2005, Cebu Pacific signed a joint venture agreement with SIA Engineering Company for the maintenance of the Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft. The new company, called Aviation Partnership (Philippines) Corporation, is co-owned by SIA Engineering Ltd. and Cebu Pacific.

On 13 March 2007, Cebu Pacific announced an order of 10 Airbus A320, plus 10 options. The firm orders are for delivery from 2010 - 2012, while the options are for delivery from 2011 - 2013. In order to bridge the gap from now until the first delivery in 2010, CEB will be taking short to medium term leases on Airbus A320 aircraft. 4 will be leased in 2008, with a further 3-4 being leased in 2009.

On the 18th of December, Cebu Pacific announced that they have ordered an additional 4 ATR-72-500 turboprop aircraft. This order increases their order of ATR-72 aircraft from 6 firm plus 8 options to 10 firm plus 8 options.

By the end of 2008, Cebu Pacific will have a fleet of 25 aircraft after the four leased A320 planes and six ATRs are delivered in 2008.

Partnerships
Cebu Pacific is the only Philippine-based member airline of Northwest Airlines' WorldPerks award travel program. WorldPerks offers regular travelers the ability to obtain free tickets, First Class upgrades on flights, or other types of rewards. As of August 1 2006 Northwest and Cebu Pacific no longer have a mileage accrual agreement, although WorldPerks miles may still be redeemed on Cebu Pacific. As of January 26 2008, Northwest Airlines has temporarily suspended their partnership with Cebu Pacific, due to the FAA Category 2 downgrading.

The airline is also partnering with Metrobank Card Corporation for its ''Go! Mastercard'' credit card which offers frequent flyer reward points.

Incidents and Accidents

 * On February 2, 1998, Cebu Pacific Flight 387, a DC-9-32 travelling from Manila to Cagayan de Oro, crashed on the slopes of Mount Sumagaya in Misamis Oriental, killing all 104 people on board. The crash was one of the country's worst air tragedies. Aviation investigators deemed the incident to be caused by pilot error when the plane made a non-regular stopover to Tacloban. Flight 387 was supposed to be a direct flight but due to the stopover, the pilots were not familiar with the route.
 * On May 3, 2006 at 9:15 am, Cebu Pacific Flight 393, a Douglas DC-9 from Davao, was on final approach on Runway 27 at Zamboanga International Airport. After touchdown, the left main gear of the aircraft burst. None of the 100 passengers were injured. However, the aircraft was stuck on the runway, forcing the airport to be closed for 23 hours. All flights to and from Zamboanga were canceled or rerouted.