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Cebu Pacific targets its first long haul destination – Dubai

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Cebu Pacific will launch a direct service between Manila and Dubai from the 7th October 2013.

This is one I’ve been watching on and off as Cebu Pacific has been in the process of obtaining Airbus A330 aircraft… and my thoughts where were they were going to deploy them too.

The Manila to Dubai run will be Cebu Pacific’s first long haul destination, with the timings looking a little like this:

5J7944 DEPART MNL 16:40 ARRIVE DXB 21:40
5J7945 DEPART DXB 23:00 ARRIVE MNL 11:40+1 

Commences: 7th October 2013
Equipment: Airbus A330-300

Flight time is expected to be about 9 hours

Now for the ugly bit. How many seats will there be aboard this plane? Have guess. A good HARD guess.

An Airbus A330-300 (the payload optimised version of the A330) is rated for 295 passengers in a 3-Class configuration, 335 in a 2-Class config and a maximum ultra-dense Economy version that seats 440 people.

Cebu Pacific is going near enough for broke with 400 seats in an all economy layout.

No mention of IFE in the plans, but there will be in-flight WiFi in the plane (which will probably be a paid option).

Fares are available for sale now, but as this is a low-cost operation, expect to pay for luggage (at variable prices) and meals, comfort kits and seat reservation

Cebu Pacific will have their first two aircraft will arriving in 2013 allowing them to commence service, with an additional two arriving in 2014, targeting routes within an 11 hour flight distance from Manila – including Australia, Middle East, parts of Europe and the US.

The airline will contest this route with Emirates, who operate a 3x daily service between Manila and Dubai.

This will be one to watch as this will be one of the first long haul LCC’s to operate an economy configuration only.  Hopefully, this will work for the airline…

Comments

  1. Joey says

    I think it will work for the airline and will provide overseas filipino workers with a cheaper option to fly the DXB-MNL route.

    This is definitely interesting since I heard Emirates is planning to start another DXB-MNL flight (but arriving in Clark airport… I forget the three letter code but it’s only 1.5 hours from Manila.)

    As far as IFE goes, I don’t recall seeing any in the flights I’ve flown with them in SE Asia, but their FA’s are known to dance to some pop songs during safety briefing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqh8e2KYIrU

    Hopefully it’ll also make fares on DXB-MNL route more competitive between Emirates, Cebu Pacific, and even Etihad (AUH-MNL).