Cebu Pacific Air – too much capacity?

Cebu Pacific Air has capacity problems in two ways. On the one hand they put world’s biggest number of seats in their Airbus A300-300. And on the other hand they have over-capacity in their Cebu-Camiguin flights.

Cebu Pacific Air A300-300

Officially the A300-300 carries 295 passengers in a three-class cabin layout, 335 in two-class, or up to 440 in an all-economy layout. Cebu Pacific Air presses 436 paxes in their birds. They proudly say:

Sitting 9 hours in such a seat may be OK for Filipinos. An average Pinoy measures 161.9 cm (5 ft 3 1⁄2) and a Pinay is 150.2 cm (4 ft 11 ) tall. But when it comes to western tourists, the seat get really too narrow. Dutch men have an average height of  183.2 cm (6 ft), the Dutch women bring it to 169.9 cm (5 ft 7 ). The only solution to survive such a sardine can flight is to book one of the rare seats with more space for the legs.
Cebu Pacific Air A300-300 standard seats provide guests with 30 inch seat pitch while Standard Plus seats will provide additional legroom with 32 inch seat pitch. Standard Plus seats are located at the rear section of the cabin. Cebu Pacific Air A300-300 preferred seats may either be a bulkhead seat or an exit row seat.

 CRUEL                                                          YOGI                                                         DECENT

Cebu Pacific Air has over-capacity on flights
Cebu – Camiguin – Cebu

On April 15, 2013 Cebu Pacific Air started their flights between Cebu and Camiguin with an ATR 72-500. In the beginning there were 3 flights per week. From June 4 last year 5J flew 4 times weekly. Starting with last years Lanzones festival, 5J provided Camiguin with daily flights.

On some days the flights were really fully booked with 72 passengers. But most of the time we counted around 40 passengers per flight. In the last months CEB often cancelled their flights 5J833 and 5J834 (see also here).  Last time had been this morning. These cancellations are really nasty. Today’s passengers got informed by text message yesterday evening at 7:00 p.m.. This is too late if you need to find another solution. The last ferry to Mindanao leaves at 3.30 p.m..

Now Cebu Pacific Air has published their new schedules as from October 1, 2014:

Days: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday
Time: 5J833 Cebu-Camiguin 6.10-7.00 a.m. / 5J834 Camiguin-Cebu 7.20-8.00 a.m.

That’s OK for us if they really always fly!