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 : 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 : 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.
Road Warrior : Philippines Business Traveller Guide
The Philippines is surging ahead with opening its doors to foreign investment and local companies are starting to spread their wings and taking advantage of business opportunities across the region and the world. San Miguel Corporation for example is in a deal to acquire stake Malaysian subsidiaries of Exxon Mobil, Jollibee and SM are among those already in the region.
To add to this, The Philippines is now more accessible from across the region. Flights from Japan and Korea have increased further expanding the tourism and business opportunities these countries already have with the Philippines. Increased flights from Singapore and Hong Kong are also contributing to the connectivity of the Philippines to the world.
Road Warrior : Bring a pen lah!
Base on my Travel Tips post, I'll make this into a road warrior series inspired by the same WSJ series. I'll be tapping my former colleagues and friends for this series.
Our first road warrior is one of my best bud, Jeff Garban. His work with Aboitiz Equity Ventures in the Philippines and his passion for photography has him going from one place to another and he has enthusiastically given us his tips below.
Out and about weekend
My parents are visiting for two weeks and we were out and about the island to show them around, procure essentials and update ourselves with news from back home. It's been a couple of months since I last saw my parents and I'm happy to see them. Hopefully, the family and I will be the ones visiting Cebu soon. I have lined-up a couple of must Singapore experiences for them and I can already scratch off a couple. Ride the MRT, Bus, Ikea, Suntec City and the fountain of Wealth, Carls Jr. and Orchard Road, White Carrot Cake, Kopi-O, Teh-O, Kaya toast, Roti Prata and Chicken Rice. I'll still need to schedule a visit to Mustafa and Little India and Museums and try out some more Singapore staple dishes such as Roti John, Satay, Hokien Mee, Hor Fun and Biryani, hopefully we get to find time this weekend for all of these.
Any word for more than busy?
Is there any word which means more than busy? If there is, let's use that to describe my team's current situation. It seems 24 hours is not nearly enough but we stride on. Moving forward, pushing forward, tackling one task at a time, counting, one, two, three.... every task accomplished is a celebration in itself. One down! I shout in my mind. After scratching off a more than a handful on my list, a couple more are appended. Despite of it all, it still is truly a satisfying as it is more than challenging.