JEDDAH — Cebu Pacific (CEB) announced Thursday it will begin operating direct flights between Manila and Dubai daily beginning October 7, 2013, according to the Manila-based GMANews.TV online. “We are interested in flying to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, anywhere with a big concentration of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs),” the television station quoted Alex Reyes, CEB's general manager for the Long Haul Division. Seventy percent of passengers to Dubai take multiple stops since there are no direct flights to Dubai run by the home carrier, GMANews.TV said. With over 700,000 OFWs in the United Arab Emiraites, the country has the second biggest number of Filipino workers after Saudi Arabia, which has 1.5 million OFWs. To launch its new service, Cebu Pacific is offering discounted fares—over 3,000 seats to Dubai will be sold at P888 each, available from Jan. 17-20 or until seats last. These will be valid for travel from Oct. 7, 2013 to Jan. 15, 2014. Flights to Dubai will leave Manila daily at 4:40 p.m. (Manila time). Flights from Dubai to Manila, on the other hand, will leave at 11:10 p.m. (Dubai time). With this new service, Dubai has become Cebu Pacific's first long haul destination. The airline said the Manila-Dubai flights will be on Airbus A330-300 aircraft with more than 400 all-economy class seats. — SG
