PH domestic carriers handle 9.8% more cargo over nine months

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  • Domestic air cargo traffic handled by local carriers grew 9.8% in the first nine months of 2021
  • The resumption of more flights from the same period last year caused the bump
  • Cebu Pacific remained the leading carrier, handling 37.9% or 45.303 million kg

Domestic air cargo traffic handled by Philippine carriers grew 9.8% in the first nine months of 2021 with more flights operating compared to the same period last year, preliminary data from the Civil Aeronautics Board showed.

Domestic cargo traffic grew to 119.487 million kilograms in January to September 2021 from 108.850 million kg in the same period last year.

The improvement comes as local airlines resumed more flights beginning the middle of this year. In mid-March last year, airlines began suspending their domestic and international flights as travel restrictions were imposed locally and internationally to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Since June 2020, domestic airlines gradually increased flights, although schedules depended on the changing quarantine restrictions and protocols imposed by the national and local government units.

Cebu Pacific continued to carry the biggest chunk of the total volume, handling 37.9% or 45.303 million kg. The latest figure is, however, 12.6% lower than the 51.851 million kg the low-cost carrier transported in the same period last year.

Philippine Airlines (PAL) came in second with 23.9% or 28.614 million kg of the total, a 51% jump from 18.94 million kg in the first nine months of last year.

PAL Express, PAL’s low-cost airline, ranked third with 20.7% or 24.703 million kg, up 19.3% from 20.693 million kg last year.

Cebgo placed fourth with 6.8% or 8.134 million kg, a whopping 106% increase from the 8.134 million kg it carried last year. Cebgo operates its sister airline Cebu Pacific’s dedicated freighter service, which was launched in the second half of 2020.

Ranking fifth was low-cost carrier AirAsia Philippines with 5.7% or 6.79 million kg, which was 28.8% down from 9.537 million kg last year.

Astro Air International Inc., which does business as Pan Pacific Airlines and started handling cargoes in the second quarter of 2020, was in sixth place, accounting for 2.8% or 3.362 million kg in the first nine months of 2021.

Leisure airline Seair International ranked seventh with 1.8% or 2.121 million kg, a 12.8% decline from the 2.432 million kg recorded in the first nine months of 2020.

Charter airline Island Aviation Corp. had a 0.23% share or 276,575 kg to place eighth. The volume in the first nine months of 2021 was 14.9% lower than the 325,058 kg Island Aviation handled in the same period last year.

Budget airline Royal Air Charter Service, Inc., which operates as Royal Air Airlines, ranked ninth with 114,869 kg, which were handled in the first and third quarters of 2021.

Boutique airline AirSwift Transport, Inc. handled 69,343 kg in the first half of 2021, 35.4% lower than the 107,421 kg it carried in the first quarter of 2020.