With Cebu Pacific recently announcing that it will add a morning flight to its Manila-General Santos-Manila service every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, in addition to its daily afternoon flight effective July 11, 2008, there will now be a total of 5 flights out of GenSan 3x a week!
The other three Gensan flights are Philippine Airlines‘ morning flight to Manila, PAL Express‘ mid-day flight to Cebu and again, Cebu Pacific‘s afternoon flight to Manila.
The additional Cebu Pacific schedule will depart from Manila at 7:05am and will arrive in General Santos at 8:55am using CEB’s A320 aircraft. The return flight takes off at 9:25am and lands in Manila at 11:15am.
A PAL plane and an AirPhil plane at the GenSan International Airport. Is there room for MORE Cebu Pacific flights?
For years now, PAL has been raking it in on the cargo department because its 10:05am flight exiting Gensan for Manila is almost always on full capacity with tons of FROZEN TUNA making up for most of the load for both the US and Japan markets.
Since tuna is a highly perishable item, it needs to be shipped out of Manila on the next flight available for the US or Japan on exactly the same day. With PAL being the first plane out of Gensan at 10:05 in the morning, it has been the most preferred airline among Gensan exporters.
But of course, with this new development from CebPac, PAL’s dominance is bound to end soon. The Gokongwei-owned flight carrier has even one-upped Philippine Airlines by scheduling its morning flight out of the Tuna Capital forty minutes ahead of the national flag carrier’s time of 10:05am.
And who knows? It might even cut its cargo rates lower than that of PALs?
But even without that in consideration, and if you are a GenSan businessman with a highly perishable cargo which needs to be delivered at the soonest time possible, where would you want it flown out now? PAL or CebuPac?
The answer is obvious.
And if you yourself want to arrive in Manila before lunch time, you would now know what to fly. 🙂
Addendum: According to the ATO-Gensan Manager Nathaniel Nazareno in an interview earlier this week, Cebu Pacific will soon have its own Cebu-Gensan-Cebu flights too (just like PAL Express). Oh wow!!!!! I could only imagine how this will further increase passenger and cargo traffic between the Tuna Capital and the Queen City of the South with the soon-to-follow lowering down of fare rates of both competing airlines! BIYAHE NA!!!
And to CebuPac owner Mr. John Gokongwei who is also currently constructing his BIGGEST mall in Mindanao, the Robinsons Gen. Santos Mall, what can Bariles Republic say but, “A MILLION THANKS TO YOU sir and may your tribe increase!”
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sir avel… ahmmm… asa ang mga international flights sa gensan??…. ahmm asang country pwede? effective pa ba xa karon?.. diba nawala naman?… naa pa ba? curious mind.. hahahahh!! tnx
There is any Plan for Airport Expansion?
@Jon_kw –
hi again! As of now, there is none. What the ATO needs to do since this airport is still under them is to fix their toilets and yes, do something about the overpricing porters…. and taxi drivers.
that’s good news…..
i hope they can offer international flights between gensan and singapore or jakarta.
well,GOD BLESS GENSAN
GO GENSAN
@Adrian Omar –
If we can just get enough regular passengers for these routes, that would be the day when tourism to Soccsksargen will really boom. 🙂
How many flights does Cebu Pacific have in Gensan in a daily basis?
hay salamat nag increase na jud ang flight schedules that way di na intawon mi maghulat ug hapon pa…
@gensanite –
I agree with you gensanite, sana ang CEB Pacific will consider adding route to Gensan-Cebu and vice versa, para may competition and choices ang riding public dito. Kahit thrice a week muna.
Sana tuloy2x na ang aviation development sa gensan.
Thanks.
White Knight ^_^
dpat parehason unta ang gsc airport sa NAIA terminal3 kay gwuapo g dako kayo ang NAIA
Maayo ni na News Vel….gadako na atong tourism industry sa Gensan
Way to Go!
Wow… Now I can go home as often as I want to… Cheers!
Panalo talaga tayo kapag may competition diba? Sana may evening flights na rin para mas mura pa ang fare. 🙂
Hello KUYA AVEL…
This is an addendum to my last post in this article last July 5 (please look up)…
I just checked Cebu Pacific’s site (www.cebupacificair.com), and they are nw offering the Cebu-GenSan route… It is even on sale… one-way fare is pegged at P999.00 all in – which would price it at P1,998.00 for the round trip (very affordable!!!)… Travel Date is from August 15 to November 30, and Sale Period is from July 24 to 29… Don’t you think it’s high time for us to promote the Tuna Festival to our ‘amigos’ here in Cebu? This is rather good news for us who wish to go home on a not-so regular basis… hehehe… I’m pretty excited with this… I just hope that they’ll keeping the route… Normal Fares (without sale) would have the CebuPac flights (Cebu-GenSan) at about P1,000.00 lesser that PAL Express’…
This is not to promote any airline in any way but we can have this as an add-on info to tourists who would want to celebrate the Tuna Festival with us… 🙂
I would definitely be coming home for the TunaFest… I’ll be booking my flight first thing tomorrow… I hope i could get info on the TunaFest activities through your superb site so that I can time it with my “mini-vacation”… 🙂
Cheers!!!
Cebu Pacific now flies 3x weekly between Cebu and GenSan using their brand new Airbus A319 jet… same sched as PAL Express… hehehe
@Ache hello! Yes, I agree. Being on time should always be the priority of airlines. Lowering their rates should not been that the quality of their services should also go down. Thanks ache for always visiting. 🙂
@Jake, hi! Well you can choose between the morning and afternoon flights. 🙂
It would be best if Cebu Pacific Maintained their late afternoon schedule instead of having a mid day service….
Great news indeed! it would be greater? if they keep their schedule on time esp their afternoon flight 🙂
@Emer, thanks for noting the mistake. I did the necessary corrections already. It’s cool. 🙂
@Gensanite, we are lucky that PALExpress did something about their Cebu-Gensan-Cebu fares. If Cebu Pacific finally offers this route themselves, then it will be lowered even further.
Then, we could spend our weekends doing the Sinulog dance at the Sto. Niño Cathedral. 🙂
@Jermaine, Hello!
Those are indeed great dreams for GenSan but they can be made possible! But for them to happen, it should be both the government and private sectors working together as one. One could not just do it without the other.
Where are you based, by the way? 🙂
Diba wala nang airphil nagyon? PAL Express na ang nag take over… check airphil’s website… so 4 flights lang kapag M-W-F and 3 kapag T-Th-Sa-Su…..
great news, TUNA MAN!!!
i hope CebuPac can also cater to the Cebu-GenSan route… There are a lot of Generals here in Cebu as well… before, only AirPhil caters this route… they have their fares pegged at close to 8K… whenever i go home, i usually go with CebuPac’s Cebu-Davao route… it’s have the cost of taking the AirPhil flight (even if i spend an extra 1K for the bus fare to and from Davao to GenSan)… PAL now has a new brand, PALExpress which caters the Cebu-GenSan route… i heard that they have smaller planes – i imagine it to be a fokker 50 of some sort… they trimmed down the fare tremendeslously (to about half)…
with this news, we just hope that people will come flocking to GenSan to see MANNY PACQUIAO… 🙂
Cheers!!!
What a great news & i’m extremely happy about it because its a big help when the fare is going lower especially the OFW & Tourist. As we know GENSAN is very known in the Country & Abroad. My Concern is about the Airport Facility & Building Hope there is renovation or Tuna Shape Buidling because Airport is the first impression of Gensan to welcome the visitor. I believe not only Big malls will rise in Gensan also International Hotel Chain & Hopefully my ambitious dream to have international flights where opportunity of Gensan to be the Tuna Capital of the World….hehehehe Maybe….don’t react its just only a dream.
@Jasper, hi!
According to ATO, the cable ransackers have been apprehended and the cables reinstalled. They have also reinforced night security to prevent these incidents from happening again.
With regard to night flights, they are capable. 🙂
Thanks. 🙂
Indeed that is a very good news! I wonder which airline will the first to serve evening flights to and from Gen. Santos…evening flights are cheaper :). I heard news that runway lighting systems in our international airport are not functioning because its wires or cables are being ransacked. I hope this issue will be brought to the attention of the ATO officials in Gensan as well as to the airport manager.