Cebu Pacific, the Philippines’ leading carrier, has entered into a wet-lease agreement with flyadeal, Saudi Arabia’s fast growing low-cost airline to provide two aircraft for the peak summer travel season in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The two airlines signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that covers a wide range of opportunities in commercial cooperation and support in maintenance and engineering.
The first phase of the MoU will see flyadeal utilize two of Cebu Pacific’s Airbus A320 aircraft on a wet-lease arrangement for the upcoming summer peak flying season in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Reciprocally, Cebu Pacific is examining wet-leasing flyadeal A320s during the busy winter period in Southeast Asia at the end of the year.
The agreement was signed at a joint press conference held in Manila on Wednesday wherein the parties outlined plans for a phased cooperation beginning with the wet-lease arrangement.
Talks between the two airlines began earlier this year following a visit by flyadeal chief executive Steven Greenway to Manila to learn more about Cebu Pacific’s A330-900neo operations.
flyadeal recently announced plans to venture into the long-haul market with an order for 10 A330 widebodies to be deployed between Saudi Arabia and the Philippines, and across southeast Asia from 2027.
“Today’s agreement is momentous as it marks flyadeal’s first ever strategic airline partnership. It was clear and obvious that flyadeal could learn a lot from Cebu Pacific’s experience of low-cost long-haul operations given we will be inducting the same A330-900neos into our fleet in just two years’ time. There are great benefits in sharing technical knowledge, training, and best practice in preparation for our A330 induction and, of course, we are both A320 operators,” Greenway said.
