The country’s leading airline, Cebu Pacific Air (PSE: CEB) announces the top ten picks among millions of netizens who participated in the #CEBFlyMeTo campaign. The breakthrough campaign utilized crowdsourcing to find out from netizens which destinations in the Philippines they would want Cebu Pacific to fly next.
#CEBFlyMeTo also aimed to bring communities together to voice out their thoughts and push for their hometowns to become one of CEB’s destinations. Since the campaign was launched in late-2017, over two million netizens watched, shared, reacted, and commented with their #CEBFlyMeTo votes.
The top ten most-requested destinations were announced via the CEB Facebook page last Thursday (http://bit.ly/2nwqBr7). These are are: Daet (Camarines Norte), Mati (Davao Oriental), Bantayan Island (Cebu), San Vicente (Palawan), Siquijor, Lal-Lo (Cagayan), Marinduque, Maasin (Southern Leyte), Basco (Batanes), and Bislig (Surigao Del Sur). These destinations are currently being checked for feasibility of mounting commercial flights, using criteria like market readiness, state of airport and related infrastructure, as well as safety and security in the area.
This means that CEB could soon be flying to any of these breathtaking destinations. Cebu Pacific has several brand-new aircraft set to be delivered over the coming months. From 2018 to 2022, CEB expects delivery of seven brand-new Airbus A321ceo, 32 Airbus A321neo, and eight ATR 72-600 aircraft.
“We want to engage with Filipino travelers and give them the opportunity to be part of our planning process as we continue to connect the Philippine islands and offer the lowest fares. We are now in the process of reviewing the operational viability of flying to these destinations.” said Candice Iyog, Vice President for Marketing and Distribution at Cebu Pacific.
The #CEBFlyMeTo campaign was inspired by an online petition spearheaded by residents and the local government of Masbate to mount commercial flights to the island-province in 2016. After feasibility and technical checks, Cebu Pacific launched commercial flights between Manila and Masbate in February 2017.
Today, Cebu Pacific has 18 flights weekly between Manila and Masbate. The online campaign has allowed Masbateños to contribute to the economic growth of the province by helping open doors of opportunities for business and tourism.
Aside from Masbate, Cebu Pacific was the first to mount commercial flights to destinations that are now up-and-coming tourist areas such as Siargao, Camiguin and Virac.