Cebu Pacific Air (5J, Manila Ninoy Aquino International) and flyadeal (F3, Jeddah International) signed a memorandum of understanding on May 28 to explore cooperation opportunities in the fleet management and maintenance segments. The partnership will include fleet swaps through wet-leases, and flyadeal confirmed to ch-aviation that it will wet-lease two A320-200s from the Philippine low-cost carrier.
The initial ACMI contract will run for two months during the 2025 summer season. Cebu Pacific is expected to wet-lease flyadeal’s A320 aircraft during the high-demand winter season in Southeast Asia, although no formal agreement has been reached yet.
"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 around to bring in Cebu Pacific aircraft during our peak period and vice versa for [Cebu Pacific CEO] Mike Szucs and his team to explore taking our aircraft for their winter peak later this year," the CEO of flyadeal, Steven Greenway, said.
He also noted there are significant benefits to sharing technical knowledge and training practices related to the A330-900N. “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,” he noted.
Saudia Group, the parent company of flyadeal, recently placed an order for ten A330-900Ns for its low-cost arm. Meanwhile, Cebu Pacific already operates eleven A330-900Ns, with five more expected to arrive in the future, ch-aviation Commercial Aviation Aircraft Data data shows.
flyadeal's fleet comprises eleven A320-200s and twenty-seven A320-200Ns. Besides the A330-900Ns, the Philippine carrier also operates eighteen A320-200s, twenty-two A320-200Ns, seven A321-200s, and nineteen A321-200NX. Cebu Pacific has two subsidiaries, AirSWIFT and Cebgo, that operate various ATR aircraft types.
