Cebu Pacific Air (5J, Manila Ninoy Aquino International) is selling its two ATR72-500(F)s, with CEO Mike Szucs telling FlightGlobal this week that turboprop freight operations are a niche market that "we will be stepping out of."
"They are great aircraft but somebody else will do a better job of it than we will,” he said.
The pair formerly operated as passenger aircraft for Cebu Pacific and its subsidiary Cebgo (DG, Manila Ninoy Aquino International) before being converted in 2019-20. On their return, the freighters were operated by Cebgo for Cebu Pacific. Both aircraft went into storage in May 2023, with one, RP-C7253 (msn 828), briefly returning to service in November before going into storage again. The second freighter is RP-C7252 (msn 820). A Cebu Pacific spokesperson confirmed to ch-aviation that the airline was readying the two freighters for sale and that it expected to issue a request for proposal before the end of the year.
Szucs said the freighters performed well during the pandemic. However, now that is over, "all the freight is going into the bellyspace of the passenger aircraft,” he said.
Szucs added that offloading the freighters will allow Cebu Pacific to concentrate on its core passenger operations, which are likely to significantly expand after signing a binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Airbus to order 102 A321-200Ns with options for a further fifty A320neo Family jets at the Farnborough 2024 Airshow this week. The airline expects to finalise the deal in the third quarter of 2024.
