Cebu Pacific Set To Send 459-Seat Airbus A330neos To Sydney

Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport

IATA/ICAO Code:

SYD/YSSY

Country:

Australia

CEO:

Geoff Culbert

Passenger Count :

44,446,838 (2019)

Runways :

07/25 - 2,530m (8,300ft) | 16L/34R - 2,438m (8,000ft) | 16R/34L - 3,962m (13,000ft)

Terminals:

Terminal 1 | Terminal 2 | Terminal 3

Philippine carrier Cebu Pacific will resume Manila to Sydney in June. For the first time, flights will use all-economy, 456-seat A330-900s. They have a 28" seat pitch, with slimline and lightweight Recaro seats. It'll probably feel less tightly packed than it might appear.

To Sydney with 459-seat A330neos

ULCC Cebu Pacific launched Sydney from Manila in September 2014, and it ran until early 2020. Now it's back, just with the world's highest density cabin.

It'll be brilliant for lower seat-mile costs, although there is a considerable number of seats to fill per departure. Booking data from 2019 shows that passengers will mainly be to/from Manila. However, 50,000 still transited, especially across the wider Philippines and also to Macau, near Hong Kong.

The 3,879-mile (6,243km) airport pair will be served on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to Australia, and Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays back. The schedule is as follows, with all times local:

Manila to Sydney: 5J39, 23:20-09:50+1
Sydney to Manila: 5J40, 11:20-17:50

It is scheduled to increase to 5x weekly from November and revert to A330-300s, although this may change. At 5x weekly, it'll have more weekly services than at any other time, according to schedules information available via Cirium.

Cebu Pacific's A330-900 route network in northern summer 2022. Image: OAG Mapper.

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Two A330-900s for now

Cebu Pacific received its first A330-900 in November 2021, with the second example arriving less than a month later. According to ch-aviation.com, both are leased from Avolon:

RP-C3900: arrived on November 25th, 2021
RP-C3901: arrived on December 15th, 2021

Flightradar24 shows that RP-C3900 entered commercial service on December 15th between Manila and Davao City, and RP-C3901 on December 22nd from Manila to Cebu. Since then, they've been deployed on multiple domestic routes and to Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, and Dubai.

Cebu Pacific placed an order for 16 A330-900s at the 2019 Paris Air Show, all scheduled for delivery between 2021 and 2024. The type supposedly has a 25% lower fuel consumption than the A330-300 and, when combined with 5% more seats, will be hard to beat economically.

Photo: Hetzark Segundo via Wikimedia

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18 A330neo users

As shown below, TAP Air Portugal has more A330-900s than any other carrier. Note that across all 18 operators, not all aircraft are active; quite a few are stored.

The type is TAP's primary widebody, and it uses them in a three-class, 298-seat configuration. That's a typical number of seats in a multi-class layout, but it does vary enormously from just 281 with Delta to 459 with Cebu Pacific. The Philippine ULCC has 63% more seats on the same type, reflecting its strategy and strategic position.