Cebu Pacific Air (5J, Manila Ninoy Aquino International) will take a decision regarding a new order for between thirteen and sixteen widebody aircraft by early 2020, Senior Advisor (Engineering & Fleet Management) Ian Wolfe told Air Transport World.

The Filipino carrier's widebody fleet currently consists of eight A330-300s. Targeting to start taking deliveries of the new equipment around 2022, Cebu Pacific will be set to double its long-haul fleet.

Wolfe said that once new aircraft start delivering to Cebu, the carrier will phase out its current A330s. The aircraft are relatively new with an average age of just 4.4 years but by 2022, with an age of around 8 years, they will already be older than Cebu's target. The airline leases six aircraft from Park Aerospace Holdings (three units), Voyager Aviation (two), and DAE Capital (one). The other two are owned by Cebu's in-house leasing firm Cebu Aircraft Leasing.

The airline issued a Request for Information (RFI) last year and will issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) around mid-2019.

Wolfe added that the airline will continue to deploy the widebodies both on high-demand short-haul routes and on its long-haul network. It could evaluate launching ultra-long-haul services to the US West Coast but this will not be the primary goal with fleet replacement.

According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Cebu currently deploys the A330s from Manila Ninoy Aquino International to Cebu and Davao domestically, as well as to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Dubai International, Hong Kong International, Melbourne Tullamarine, Osaka Kansai, Seoul Incheon, Singapore Changi, Sydney Kingsford Smith, and Tokyo Narita.

Wolfe also said that the airline will add its first five A320-200neo and five more A321-200neo this year on top of one unit of the type it already operates. It will also return three A320-200s to lessors and sell three owned units of the type in 2019. It currently operates thirty-four A320s (including twenty owned and fourteen leased) and seven A321-200s.