Cebu Pacific Apologizes for Disruptions, Denies Overbooking and Offloading Allegations

On Wednesday, June 21, 2023, the Senate Committees on Tourism and Public Service started a joint investigation into the allegations of overbooking and offloading against Cebu Pacific Air. Led by a resolution filed by Senator Nancy Binay, this comes at the heels of recent cancellation complaints against the airline that made waves on social media.

Cebu Pacific has welcomed the investigation, saying that it would offer the carrier insights into the passengers' experiences. From this, it hopes to better address the cancellation woes.

Unfortunate Cancellations

The carrier drew the ire of customers after CEB's on-time performance plummeted to 50 percent a week prior. Last Monday, June 19, the airline noted that it already had 10 “unplanned cancellations" during that day alone. Cebu Pacific, nevertheless, denies allegations of overbooking flights and offloading passengers.

In a statement, the airline said that it "acknowledges the difficulties and frustrations that our passengers have been experiencing lately." Cebu Pacific explains that this was "primarily driven by fleet availability issues affecting the global aviation industry along with specific environmental factors."

The airline said that among the reasons for the cancellations included a shortage of spare parts and maintenance scheduling troubles, as pointed out by Cebu Pacific Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer Candice Iyog in a Radyo5 interview.

"We understand that these mitigating actions may still seem insufficient for our affected passengers. We assure you that we are actively managing the situation and determining how we can assist affected passengers," Cebu Pacific wrote.

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Issues With Spare Engines and Runway Debris

Cebu Pacific further stated that there was a global problem that affected the airline industry, which covers over 120 grounded Pratt and Whitney-powered Airbus aircraft around the world. CEB would double the level of recommended spare engines as early as last year.

However, it had been advised in March 2023 that it would no longer receive the spare engines support that Pratt and Whitney had previously indicated. This would lead to the disruption and rescheduling of some flights.

Apart from this, ground damage from runway debris would create additional long-term grounded aircraft. There are currently three aircraft grounded due to Pratt and Whitney and five aircraft long-term grounded due to other incidents.

"We will recover the five aircraft in the months ahead but the impact of the Pratt and Whitney engine shortage is something we have to plan for a longer time period," it said.

Other Non-Fleet-Related Matters

The weather has also led to a much higher occurrence of Red Lightning Alerts. With it, suspensions of various flights and ground activities came about. From April to June alone, there were said to have been 78 Red Lightning Alerts raised. Some of them even lasted for more than two hours, the carrier acknowledged.

"We understand that it is our responsibility as a public service to manage these external issues and deliver on our promise to provide access to affordable and reliable flights. Unfortunately, the unprecedented issues we face have made it difficult to deliver on the customer promise and for this, we are deeply sorry," its statement read.

The Senate Investigation

In Binay's Senate Resolution No. 575, the investigation was prompted by "complaints that travelers were offloaded by Cebu Pacific, without any verifiable cause or valid reason, due to the airline’s overbooking." The senator claims that the probe comes with the participation of the Department of Tourism and Civil Aeronautics Board to mitigate any issues raised by consumers.

The resolution added: “Affected travelers and customers complained that Cebu Pacific has not provided immediate assistance or support regarding their concerns despite seeking help from the airline’s customer service hotlines and in-person help desks."

Among those in attendance for the hearing are Cebu Pacific Chief Commercial Officer Alexander Lao and representatives from the Philippine Airlines and Air Asia.

Esquire Philippines is published by Summit Media, a company owned and managed by the Gokongwei Group of Companies, which also includes JG Summit Holdings and Cebu Pacific Air.