Manila, PHILIPPINES – Cebu Pacific (CEB), Philippines’ leading carrier, and flyadeal, Saudia Arabia’s fast growing low-cost airline, today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore joint strategic commercial initiatives.
The historic agreement 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 today at which flyadeal chief executive officer (CEO) Steven Greenway and Cebu Pacific CEO Mike Szucs 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 Greenway and a flyadeal delegation to Manila to learn more about Cebu Pacific’s A330-900neo operations. flyadeal, the Middle East’s fastest growing airline, 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.
Greenway said: “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.
“This was the starting point for wide-ranging commercial discussions covering a broad range of areas including more immediate needs of wet-leasing aircraft for flyadeal’s busy upcoming summer season. A win, win situation all round to bring in Cebu Pacific aircraft during our peak period and vice versa for Mike and his team to explore taking our aircraft for their winter peak later this year.”
Szucs explained: “With Cebu Pacific’s growing fleet, we seek to maximize the potential of our increased capacity through all months of the year. The utilization of our capacity by other carriers during our lean season is a way of achieving that.”
“This partnership with flyadeal highlights Cebu Pacific’s growing capability to support international carriers through wet leasing and broader operational collaboration. It diversifies our revenue streams and further expands Cebu Pacific’s presence beyond the Asia Pacific region.”
Both CEOs said their respective teams will meet frequently to map out the joint commercial plans over the next few months.
