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Domestic air travel in the third quarter slowed down
as airlines’ load factor fell due to record oil prices and high
inflation.
The Civil Aeronatics Board (CAB)
reported that the number of domestic passengers grew by 16 percent
to 2.9 million from July to September compared with the 2.5 million
in the same period in 2007.
The third-quarter performance,
however, was lower by 700,000 passengers compared with the 2.97
million in the second quarter.
From January to September,
domestic air travel grew by 11 percent to 8.6 million passengers
from 7.7 million in the same period a year ago.
The Civil Aeronatics Board had
projected that domestic air travel would grow only 15 percent in
2008 from 22.7 percent in 2007 because of high oil prices and
inflation.
In July, oil prices in the world
market hit $140 a barrel, while inflation posted an average of 12.2
percent in the third quarter.
The industry’s load
factor—the number of seats occupied during a flight—fell to 77
percent in the first three quarters, from 78 percent in the same
period in 2007.
The total number of seats during
the period reached 11.1 million passengers from 9.9 million in the
same period in 2007.
For the third quarter alone, the
number of seats were higher by 700,000 to 4 million compared with
3.3 million in the same period a year ago.
Gokongweiled Cebu Pacific again
dislodged Philippine Airlines (PAL) as the leading domestic airline,
having carried more passengers at 3.9 million from a year ago’s
3.3 million passengers.
Cebu Pacific had a load factor of
78 percent, or down from 83 percent in the same period in 2007.
Rival Philippine Airlines,
however, carried 3.4 million passengers in the first three months of
the year from 2.9 million passengers in the same period a year ago.
PAL’s load factor was 78 percent from July to September, lower
than 79 percent in 2007.
Small airlines like Asian Spirit,
now Zest Air was mostly affected by the rising fuel costs as its
passenger count dropped 16 percent to 308,035 from 366,433
passengers in the same period in 2007.
Air Philippines and Southeast
Asian Airlines (Seair) posted slight drops to 781,437 from 835,971
and 175,642 from 186,573, respectively.
--Darwin G. Amojelar
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