Review: Cebu Pacific Economy Class on the Airbus A330-900neo

• Airline: Cebu Pacific
• Class: Economy
• Aircraft: Airbus A330-900neo
• Route: Dubai (DXB) to Manila (MNL)
• Flight time: 9 Hours 15 Minutes

What are the most brutal flights in the world that I’ve experienced?

Firstly, The Beast of Bangladesh. 450 seats crammed inside a small Airbus A330, full of first-time flyers putting the crew to a real test. It’s mostly chaos and a real adventure.

Secondly, IndiGo’s infamous all-economy class 777, with a mind-blowing 531 seats. While it’s a very cramped experience, I managed to survive the 11-hour flight to India.

And then we have Cebu Pacific’s famous Airbus A330-900, which can accommodate 475 souls on board, making it officially the most densely populated plane in the universe. Flying essential workers between the Philippines and the Middle East, that’s the flight we’re going to take today.

Today’s trip starts in Dubai, checking in for a 9-hour flight on Cebu Pacific with 470 other passengers to Manila which was set to be a real aviation adventure on one of the most crowded planes on Earth.

What you see in the image is 460 people getting ready to check in for one of the most densely configured planes on Earth: Cebu Pacific’s Airbus A330-900.

It’s a plane that usually, in a standard configuration, holds about 300 seats. So today will be quite a cozy experience, to say the least.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this many people checking in for a flight. There was a massive line of maybe 500 to 600 meters of people.

But given there were so many people wanting to get on the flight, it was quite professionally dealt with. There were 15 check-in counters and a lot of staff coordinating the people.

Instead of it being an absolute mess, which you could expect with so many people, it’s done really professionally. So, well done to the Cebu Pacific team so far!

I did the math, and if every soul checks in an average of 20kg, that already makes 9.4 tons.

The flight was fully booked, and considering the average human’s weight of 62kg, that would be another 29 tons. That makes a total of almost 39 tons, which equals the weight of a Boeing 737.

Interestingly, the payload of an Airbus A330-900 Neo is roughly 47 tons. Interesting numbers.

When it comes to densely configured planes, I’ve been on a few of them. However, Filipinos are some of the nicest people on earth, so this already gives me a lot of hope and comfort that the flight is going to be quite bearable. But, still, 9 hours with 460 people-that is quite a challenge.

The Airbus A330-900neo of Cebu Pacific-pure economy class pulled into the gate. The airline operates 10 of them, and flights to Dubai are the airline’s bread and butter, given that 21% of Dubai’s population consists of Filipinos. It’s fair to say they are the backbone of the working force in the UAE.

This cabin features a nine-abreast economy class configuration, with around 460 seats and 11 crew members operating on this flight to Manila.

For comparison, Emirates on the A380 has on average 480 seats, and they have two decks, an upper and a lower.

Squeezing all these people in here does come however with the advantage of cheap fares, which is pretty good.

My first impression was though there were so many people, the plane looks rather clean and well taken care of.

The seats look nice. It’s probably not the most comfortable padding, but you have a USB slot, and even a USB-C slot. Legroom isn’t too bad either.

We pushed back on time, and I must salute the ground team of Cebu Pacific and everyone else involved to pull this off. It’s a logistical nightmare to deal with so many passengers plus cargo, but they did a remarkable job handling it all. They are absolute experts at what they do-very well done.

If you haven’t pre-purchased your meal on Cebu Pacific, you can buy something off the menu, which offers several meal combo deals.

Keep in mind to bring enough water for your journey, as none is included in your ticket price. I ordered a chicken pasta meal, and to my surprise, it was actually pretty decent.

However, feeding several hundred passengers takes a few hours, and that means the cabin stays bright for a long time, making it hard to catch some sleep. But hey, it’s a budget airline, so we can’t expect too much.

Comparing this flight to US-Bangla, which I did earlier this year flying from Dubai to Dhaka in Bangladesh, this one is a lot nicer.

The cabin is in better condition, and the crew-Filipinos-are service champions. There’s no nation in the world that is more hospitable than them. They are really service champions, very pleasant, very nice, and so are many of the other passengers.

Filipinos are known to be very kind, well-mannered, and respectful, and you can feel that on this flight. Overall, it’s actually pretty good for what I paid for.

The only thing that bothered me on this flight was the lack of a proper headrest.

But then I did the numbers again, and a headrest can weigh up to 1 kg and would waste half a ton of weight and payload. So, I understand the airline’s decision to not install one, though it sacrificed a lot of comfort.

We then started our descent into Manila, and to be honest, this was a great flight and a lot less headache than I anticipated.

The cabin crew was lovely and hardworking throughout the flight, passengers were very well behaved, and everything felt super organized with no drama, no nonsense. Overall, a great product.

I’ve had a couple of Cebu Pacific flights in the past, and I must admit that they are one of the most professionally run budget airlines in the world. If you ask me, I can strongly recommend them, and I wouldn’t hesitate booking them again if the price was right.

That was my trip on Cebu Pacific. I don’t want to give away too much but I’ve got some really exciting stuff coming up, so be sure to subscribe to my newsletter so you don’t miss my reviews and videos!

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This is it guys, wherever you’re off to, have a safe trip!

About the Author

Josh Cahill is an award-winning Aviation YouTuber who is reportedly one of the most-watched flight reviewers on the internet. He organised Afghanistan’s first all-female flight together with Kam Air in February 2021 on a flight from Herat to Kabul for which he received the Aviation Achievement Award. His favourite hobby? Flying exotic airlines nobody has ever heard of.