Road Warrior : Fight for Malaysian flights
In the news recently is about Philippine carriers bombarding the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) with requests for increased seat entitlements for flights to Kuala Lumpur. The Philippines in June this year negotiated for an increase of 2,520 seats for the Manila-Kuala Lumpur route with Malaysian carriers given unlimited seats to secondary Philippine airports. Cebu Pacific who applied early for additional seats apparently got 720 and the other airlines are up in arms asking for substantial increase in their seat entitlement also. AirPhil Express, ZestAir and SeaAir are ramping up their muscles to budge the government for another negotiations to increase the seat entitlements but so far, the government is not dancing their tune.
Road Warrior : Buzz on PLDT on PAL and consolidation in the Industry
The current buzz is that PLDT might be gearing up to go into the aviation industion with its new company, Pacific Global One Aviation Inc., which apparently was putting PAL on its sights. This caused a bit of a raucus in the markets and lifted PAL's stocks to gain 3% on Monday. But as all flash fires, an abrupt extinguisher will be the around the corner and today, PLDT just used that extinguisher and denied rumors of its possible interest in PAL.
I think this is purely chismis(gossip) 21st century style with technology being the culprit of bringing malformed news across borders or this could be a very good example of pass the message and how it ultimately distorts the message when it gets to the end of the line, this example could very well save time and effort and people would not need to go through the exercise and find out the same.
Road Warrior : Going to NAIA, avoid Tramo
Do you have flights today or heading to NAIA to pickup someone? MMDA and apparently CebuPac has sent advisory to avoid EDSA/Tramo due to road works on a Maynilad busted pipe.
Twitter is down from where I am so if you wanna be updated, head on to MMDA or CebuPac twitter accounts.
Road Warrior : Engine problem forces Airphil Express aircraft to return to airport
We don't read about that many airplane issues recently and so this one might be good to take note of. I think this is also a recent issue with AirPhil to keep tabs of as they are newer players in the airspace with newer aircrafts after their re-encarnation as Air Philippines.
Flight 2P247 from Cebu to Davao had to return to Cebu last Wednesday, 14-September apparently due to problems with its left engine with the airplane or airline requesting for for priority landing.
Apparently while airborne, a warning light panel signified engine malfunction which forced the pilots to head back, upon landing safely the maintenance crew apparently did not find any issue and that both engines of the aircraft where working as expected with the issue isolated to the warning light and is considered a malfuntion, this of course is according to the airline, not sure what the Civial Aviation Authority says about it or even if it will investigate it which they should! do we even have an equivalent to the National Transportation Safety Board in the US?
Majority of the passengers where transferred to another 2P flight and aircraft with 15 passengers cancelling the entire trip from fear? well, not entire out of the ordinary, I think I would have second thoughts if I was in their place.
So, that big of a news for what turned out to be a warning light malfunction? this should not be taken lightly, with the affordability and necessity of taking to the air than other transport methods and considering the Philippines is an archipelago, no issue should be too small for the Philippine aviation industry, every effort must be exhausted to ensure safety while on the ground and in the air.
Road Warrior : Improvement of NAIA
A recent article on Manila Bulletin indicates we could expect improvements at NAIA terminal 1 coming our way soon with an estimated 100 million pesos budget for renovation by renowned interior designers to upgrade aesthetics aspects of the terminal and a multi-storey parking building, all of which are expected to be completed by 2012 and will be undertaken and fully funded by MIAA.
Work on sorting out the structural and technical issues at NAIA terminal 3 is also apparently on-going and hopefully a fully operational terminal 3 will greatly help decongest terminal 1.
Road Warrior : Bring Water
My featured Road Warrior for the week is Orville Avila, a former colleague who is a Oracle ERP Applications Supervisor with Aboitiz Equity Ventures. His work with the company has him jetting around the Philippines. Interesting bit of info is that his son wants to be a pilot. In the future, the son might be flying the very plane the father is on.
How often do you travel: at least once a month
Where do you usually travel to: Manila(Philippines)
Best Aircraft: so far i would say (aircraft's from )Cathay Pacific
Best Airport: Changi
Most comfortable airline seats: (Seats from) Cathay
Road Warrior : Singapore Airlines adds new planes
Recent news indicates Singapore Airlines(SQ) will be expanding its fleet, through a six year lease with option extend, to include 15 a330-300 aircraft's from airbus which is expected between 2013 to 2015. SQ currently have 19 of the same aircraft and the new planes are planed to increase or create new flights to Australia, the Middle East and around Asia.
Apart from this order, SQ is due received its 13th A380 in France and is due to receive another next month, complete delivery of all 19 ordered is expected to be complete by 2014.
SQ may further order an unspecified number of either Boeing's 777-300ER or Airbus A350-1000 but are still waiting for more details on Boeing's plane.
Road Warrior : Go early to NAIA today
Philippine Airlines advises passengers with flights today to be at the airport earlier than usual due to expected heavy traffic or issues going to the airport. This is because of a planned mass action by a PAL Union.
I think this should really apply to all flights, always be prepared, you never know if something unexpected happens and it holds you up from getting to the airport, checking-in or boarding.
There was a time when we were stuck in traffic 5 Km from the airport because there was a man on top of the bridge pillars. Things like these come out of the blue without warning so best be safe and go to the airport early.
Update 19-Sept-2011 : Apparently, the action by the Union did not significantly disrupt PAL services, PAL even had a high 85% on-time performance. Although, traffic around the airport was bad according to reports but contingency measures appear to have worked for PAL.
Road Warrior : More flights between PH and VN
Vietnam Airlines is expected to soon fly directly to the Cebu, Clark and other International airports in the Philippines except NAIA with unlimited seats while seats limit between Ho Chi Minh and Manila has been increased to 5000 per week.
The Philippines and Vietnam have signed a memorandum of understanding recently for this.
Travel between both countries are concentrated on the Ho Chi Minh to Manila flight and introduction of direct flights from secondary cities in both countries would certainly be new avenues for increased collaboration and business opportunities.
Vietnam Airlines is a member of Sky Team and have codeshare agreements with some Sky Team members and others outside the group including Philippine Airlines. The airline also appear to have a couple of Dreamliners(Boeng 787) in order which could have deliveries start by 2015 and a handful of A380's which also might come in 2015.
The airline is unique as it does not have a First Class cabin, the highest being Business Class with Delux Economy which can be compared to Premium Economy and Economy to round up the cabin configuration. Delux Economy is only available on Boeing 777 flights.
Looks like this is an airline to watch for in 2015.
Road Warrior : Cebu Pacific gets 4 new planes
In this week is Cebu Pacific Air(5J) expecting to receive 3 A320 between now till the end of the year. They currently have 10 A319, 15 A320 and 8 ATR 72-500 aircraft's. At the start of next year it 5J would have 29 Airbus aircrafts of which 19 will be A320's. This is part of the 18 A320 previously ordered expected between now and 2014.
As it is, 5J already have the newest fleet in the Philipines and in contrast to PAL(PR) is generating income and aggressively expanding domestically and in the region. 5J has previously announced the order of 30 new A321neo and 7 A320 expected to be delivered between 2015 and 2021.
I'm looking forward to them getting the A321neo as I think that will lead to increased flights to regional destinations and introduction of new ones. I'm still let down that 5J only has 1 daily flight between Singapore and Cebu, I hope these new aircrafts with increase the flights.
5J will increase flights from Manila to Boracay, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Tacloban, Dumaguete and Naga. New routes will also be introduced, such as Zamboanga to Tawi-Tawi flights and Cagayan de Oro to Iloilo.
