In the Philippines, where almost all major local commercial airlines fly Airbus aircraft, the company is well-established. Philippine Airlines is the only Boeing operator in the nation, flying the B777-300ER. Cebu Pacific currently operates the most Airbus aircraft of any of the country’s major airlines.
PAL currently has 36 Airbus aircraft in service. However, when its subsidiary PALexpress’s fleet of 17 Airbus jets is included, the PAL group operates a total of 53 Airbus planes.
Based on Airfleets.net, Cebu Pacific currently operates a total of 51 Airbus aircraft. These are:
- 4x A330-900neo
- 3x A330-300
- 10x A321neo
- 7x A321ceo
- 8x A320neo
- 19 A320ceo
Please keep in mind that Cebu Pacific is currently replacing old aircraft and has not yet begun to expand its fleet. When a new plane arrives, an old one is retired. Cebu Pacific now only has three A330-300s left after replacing them with the newer A330-900 or A330neo.
PAL used to have the country’s largest Airbus fleet, but their recent Chapter 11 filing forced them to cut 20% of their fleet. The ultramodern and efficient A350-900 was the most affected, with PAL having to reduce its A350 fleet from six to two planes.
PAL operates a total of 36 Airbus aircraft which include:
- 2x A350-900
- 9x A330-300
- 8x A321neo
- 17x A321ceo
PAL subsidiary PALexpress operates:
- 13x A320ceo
- 4x A321ceo
On the other hand, I expect more A321ceos to be transferred from PAL to PALexpress in the coming years as the latter continues to take in more A321neo orders. AirAsia Philippines now has 12 Airbus A320s, while Royal Air has four A320s.
Pending Airbus orders
Cebu Pacific also has the largest outstanding order of Airbus aircraft. To date, they have a total outstanding order of:
- 12x A330-900
- 10x A321XLR
- 11x A321neo
- 13x A320neo
All-in-all, Cebu Pacific has an outstanding order of 46 Airbus planes. One A320neo is still set to be delivered within the year.
While PAL only has an outstanding order of 13 Airbus A321neo planes, there is no doubt that they can place a large order of new generation widebody Airbus planes in the future, especially since they urgently need more planes to expand their network and replace old ones. The new planes will also enable PAL to improve customer service and operate more efficiently.
While nothing has been confirmed or made official, I believe the Airbus A350-1000 will join PAL’s fleet. Will the three NTU Qatar Airways A350-1000s be accepted? I also believe they will add the A320neo and A330neo to the fleet in the future as the airline strives for more sustainable and environmentally friendly operations.
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!
