Cebu Pacific has been a very fast-growing airline in the Philippines. Today, they continue to grow their capacity beyond pre-pandemic levels by taking delivery of larger aircraft and adding more frequencies to their current network. They have also been actively replacing older aircraft with newer and more eco-friendly ones. We now look into how many aircraft Cebu Pacific has on its fleet today.
Time to fast forward to the future to know what the future fleet of Cebu Pacific will be.
The shift to a more sustainable and efficient airline
When fuel prices are high, the best solution is to operate using a lean fleet and replace all aircraft with more efficient and environment-friendly ones. As such, Cebu Pacific has embarked on a journey to convert all their current Airbus aircraft to more efficient ones such as the A320neo.
Cebu Pacific has also placed large orders of brand new aircraft in the past years. In 2011, Cebu Pacific ordered 32 Airbus A321neos and 10 Airbus A320neo. In 2019, the airline placed another order of 16 Airbus A330neo, five additional Airbus A320neo, and 10 Airbus A321XLR.
Now, we check how many aircraft are currently in the Cebu Pacific active fleet and how many more will be delivered in the coming years.
The current Cebu Pacific fleet
Based on Airfleets.net and data from Airbus, the following are the current active aircraft in the Cebu Pacific fleet as of this writing. This count excludes the ATR-72s of CebGo.
| Aircraft | Present count | Outstanding order | Seats |
| Airbus A320-200 | 19 | – | 180 |
| Airbus A321-200 | 6 | – | 230 |
| Airbus A320neo | 8 | 13 | 188 |
| Airbus A321neo | 10 | 22 | 236 |
| Airbus A321XLR | – | 10 | TBA |
| Airbus A330-300 | 5 | – | 436 |
| Airbus A330-900neo | 3 | 13 | 459 |
| Total | 51 | 58 |
Now, if you are wondering if the present 51 will be added to the 58 outstanding orders, that is not the case. Cebu Pacific is looking to operate an all-NEO fleet by 2027. That means all older generation aircraft such as the “CEO” or Current Engine Option series will be replaced by NEO jets.
So far, Cebu Pacific has no plans of going ultra-long haul, which will mean that the biggest and most expensive aircraft Cebu Pacific will have is the A330-900neo.
The future of the Cebu Pacific fleet
Cebu Pacific will be shifting to an all-Airbus NEO fleet by 2027. This means that Cebu Pacific will have the following aircraft in their fleet should the delivery timetable remain unchanged:
- 16x Airbus A330-900neo
- 32x Airbus A321neo
- 10x Airbus A321XLR
- 21x Airbus A320neo
Things may still change, especially since this order was made before the covid-19 pandemic. Cebu Pacific has clarified that the ten A321XLR orders may or may not change. The airline still has the option to either keep the same order or convert them to more A321neos.
However, I feel that the A321XLR will be able to serve Cebu Pacific’s long-haul narrowbody requirements. This will allow Cebu Pacific to operate flights from Manila to Sydney and Melbourne using narrowbody aircraft. It will also allow Cebu Pacific to serve more routes, such as India and Sapporo, Japan. In other words, the XLR will give Cebu Pacific more flexibility, and that is to operate longer routes without using widebody aircraft.
Cebu Pacific remains an exciting airline to watch out for in the coming years. I love how they have rebranded themselves to be more of a “cosmopolitan” airline. The fact remains that they will continue to operate as a low-cost airline with a more hip and trendy branding to serve the younger travelers.
First love never dies. I fell in love with airplanes and aviation when I was a kid. My dream was to become a pilot, but destiny led me to another path: to be an aviation digital media content creator and a small business owner. My passion for aviation inspires me to bring you quality content through my website and social accounts. Aviation is indeed in my blood and blog!
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