Low-cost carriers Cebu Pacific (CEB) and flyadeal have entered into a strategic partnership, signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Manila on May 28, 2025.
The MoU, signed by Cebu Pacific CEO Michael Szucs and flyadeal CEO Steven Greenway, covers a wide range of opportunities in commercial cooperation and support in maintenance and engineering.
The first phase of the MoU will see flyadeal utilize two of Cebu Pacific’s Airbus A320 aircraft on a wet lease arrangement for the upcoming summer peak flying season in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Reciprocally, Cebu Pacific is examining wet-leasing flyadeal’s A320s during the busy winter period in Southeast Asia at the end of the year.
“The genesis of the partnership is capacity shares,” Greenway told AeroTime in an exclusive interview.
CEB will lease its A320s to flyadeal during its low period, which typically occurs during the third quarter of the year. This season happens to be flyadeal’s peak period.
“Their low is our peak, and their peak is our low,” Greenway added. According to Greenway, this is the first partnership by a Saudi carrier with an external airline that has been approved by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
flyadeal, the Middle East’s fastest growing airline, recently announced plans to venture into the long-haul market with an order for 10 Airbus A330-900neo widebodies to be deployed between Saudi Arabia and the Philippines, and across Southeast Asia from 2027.
Greenway said: “Today’s agreement is momentous as it marks flyadeal’s first ever strategic airline partnership. 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. There are great benefits in sharing technical knowledge, training, and best practice in preparation for our A330 induction and, of course, we are both A320 operators.”
“With Cebu Pacific’s growing fleet, we seek to maximize the potential of our increased capacity through all months of the year. The utilization of our capacity by other carriers during our lean season is a way of achieving that,” CEB’s Szuchs explained.
