Cebu Pacific logged a 33.4 percent growth in its passenger traffic for the first month of 2025, powered by strong demand over the New Year holiday season.

In a statement on Friday, Feb. 14, the budget carrier said it carried 2.6 million passengers with seat capacity soaring by 31.2 percent due to additional frequencies and new routes launched last year.

Seat load factor (SLF), which measures how many of the available seats were occupied, improved to 86.5 percent from last year’s 85.1 percent. 

During the same period, traffic for domestic passengers saw a 34.6 percent increase on 37.0 percent more seats and SLF of 87 percent.

“January traffic saw strong passenger demand, fueled by holiday travel and the airline’s network and capacity expansion over the past year,” said Cebu Pacific President and Chief Commercial Officer Xander Lao.

Cebu Pacific's domestic network has expanded to 84 routes from 68 in the previous year.

This led to an upswing in weekly flights from 2,620 in January 2024 to the current 2,912 weekly flights.

Meanwhile, international passenger traffic tallied a 29.9 percent year-on-year growth on 17 percent higher seats and SLF of 85.1 percent.

The airline continues to expand its international scope with the current 40 flights from 36 in the year prior. Of which, weekly flights grew by 16 percent from 561 weekly flights in 2024.

Overall, Cebu Pacific now covers 124 routes across domestic and international destinations, up from last year’s 104.

“Load factors remained healthy, with international travel demand notably outpacing capacity growth,” said Lao.

“Throughout this year, we are committed to optimizing our capacity to meet the rising consumer demand along with the need to manage ongoing engine and supply chain issues,” he added.

Cebu Pacific operates in 37 domestic and 26 international destinations via a fleet of 98 aircraft.