Philippines' low-cost airline to expand fleet

Philippine budget carrier Cebu Pacific will order seven more Airbus A320 planes as part of a plan to double the airline's capacity in five years, Dow Jones Newswires reported Tuesday.

Company president Lance Gokongwei said this would be in addition to 15 other Airbus planes that Cebu Pacific had already ordered, according to Dow Jones. All the new planes will arrive by 2014, Gokongwei said.

The 22 new planes will cost $1.4 billion, Gokongwei was quoted as saying. The report did not give the model of the other Airbus planes that will be ordered.

The airline will use internally generated cash and financing from European export credit agencies to bankroll the purchases, Dow Jones reported.

Cebu Pacific is a low-fare, no frills airline that began in 1996 and serves more than 30 destinations in the Philippines and also flies to nearby Asian cities. The airline now has a fleet of 10 Airbus A319s, 11 Airbus A320s and eight ATR 72-500 planes, according to its website.

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