Saudi Arabian low-cost airline flyadeal has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Philippine carrier Cebu Pacific to jointly explore strategic commercial initiatives. As part of the first phase of the deal, flyadeal will wet lease two A320 aircraft from Cebu Pacific for the upcoming summer peak season.
In turn, Cebu Pacific is examining wet leasing flyadeal's A320s during the winter season, a busy period in southeast Asia, at the end of the year.
The agreement covers opportunities in commercial cooperation in aircraft maintenance and engineering.
The two airlines had begun discussions regarding the agreement earlier this year when flyadeal CEO Steven Greenway had visited Manilla to “learn more” on Cebu Pacific's A330-900neo operations, flyadeal said. The airline had recently ordered 10 A330 widebodies to be deployed between Saudi Arabia and the Philippines, as well as across southeast Asia from 2027.
“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,” said Greenway.
The airline commenced operations in mid-2017.
Cebu Pacific CEO Mike Szucs commented: “With Cebu Pacific's growing fleet, we seek to maximise the potential of our increased capacity through all months of the year. The utilisation of our capacity by other carriers during our lean season is a way of achieving that.”
Both Greenway and Szucs will meet frequently to map out the joint commercial plans over the next few months.
Outlets have also recently reported that Greenway said flyadeal will launch flights to Syria from July this year.