Filipino budget carrier Cebu Air is planning to start operations to the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the second half of 2013 as it looks to tap demand from Filipinos living in the Gulf, it was reported on Tuesday.
“Our key project next year is the long-haul expansion,” Cebu Air president Lance Gokongwei told Bloomberg.
He added Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways “will be my main competitors” on its Middle East routes as no Philippine carriers fly them.
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Gokongwei said the airline aims to carry up to 400,000 passengers a year on its Middle East routes and capture 25 percent of the Philippine-Middle East market by 2015, Bloomberg said.
Around three million Filipinos are believed to live in the Middle East.
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