Cebu Pacific, the Philippines’ leading low-cost carrier, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Saudi Arabia’s fast-growing airline, flyadeal, to explore joint strategic commercial initiatives.
The agreement marks the first formal partnership for flyadeal and will start with a wet lease arrangement involving two of Cebu Pacific’s Airbus A320 aircraft. These aircraft will be used to support flyadeal’s operations during the upcoming summer travel surge in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
In return, Cebu Pacific is considering leasing flyadeal A320s later this year during Southeast Asia’s busy winter season, optimizing aircraft use during off-peak periods.
The MoU was signed at a joint press conference in Manila attended by Cebu Pacific CEO Mike Szucs and flyadeal CEO Steven Greenway. The two airline heads highlighted the potential of the agreement to expand into areas such as maintenance, engineering, and shared best practices.
“With Cebu Pacific’s growing fleet, we seek to maximize the potential of our increased capacity through all months of the year,” explained Cebu Pacific CEO Mike Szucs. “The utilization of our capacity by other carriers during our lean season is a way of achieving that.”
flyadeal, a subsidiary of the Saudia Group, recently announced its entry into long-haul markets with 10 Airbus A330-900neo aircraft starting 2027. Cebu Pacific already operates the same aircraft type and has been recognized for its efficient long-haul operations—knowledge flyadeal is keen to learn from.
“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,” Greenway noted.
The agreement reflects a growing trend in the aviation industry where low-cost carriers are exploring more flexible fleet management strategies, particularly through wet leasing arrangements.
Last year, Cebu Pacific wet-leased two Airbus A320 aircraft from Bulgaria Air to augment its operations in the first quarter—a particularly strong travel season for Filipinos.
More joint meetings are expected between the two airlines to define the scope of the partnership in the months ahead.
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