seven13 wrote
Do you mean 5 and 4 rotations to LAX and SFO daily?
I couldn’t remember 4x LAX. The most can I remember is 3, 2 ex-MNL and 1 ex-CEB using the A340. For SFO, it never went double daily, max was around 10/wk if I remember correctly, only during last winter when they shifted PR114 to noon time dep from MNL.
No more cargo runs since pax flights to China resumed. All cargos are now loaded onto the regular flights. Most of the time, it can’t fit all cargos due for that day so the excess will have to wait for the next flight. I was hoping PR would open regular service SZX mainly for cargo and pax secondary.
BTW, is there any news on the leased B777? I was hoping it would be leased soon so that the current 777s could get the much needed maintenance service.
Yes. Including CEB
That was 14 flights a week briefly with 112 operating 9am and 1pm circa 2018, with 3 of these coming from CEB. Lately, they went to 16x last year. Could have been 21fpw had they still had plenty of planes. You are correct to say that there are only two departures from MNL, but technically speaking they are four different flights when arriving at LAX, because they arrive at different times of the day. I think it has more to do with flight consistency arriving at a particular time.
PAL has the habit of doing this. Look at PVG and XMN. CGK, and KUL looks like PVG before. You could say it is just a daily flight. But no, its a different flight entirely when flown at different time. Same flight number or not. You can always have a different interpretation of it. I'm just following how the airport operator would look at it.
On the 77w front, one lease is expiring this year, while another one expires next year. PAL is planning to extend leases on these planes. How many years, we don't know yet.
seven13 wrote
During JJBs time, the B747 were used to fly to regional hops after coming in from a longhaul flight. HKG on PR300/306, the A340 used to do BKK as PR730, PVG gets the B747 too. When RSA took over, as the B744 were aging and maintenance was extremely costly, was it called fleet/route rationalization(?), the B744 were strictly doing longhaul ops only and the A330 took over the regional routes the B744 used to fly to. When SMC relinquished control, its operations remained the same. The B777s were strictly doing longhaul flights only. The triclass with occasional switch to biclass, were dispatched to HK, JP, KR, SG and TH.
Post pandemic, since there is a lack of A333, the B777 are substituting in when demand is high for a particular route. Just the other day, BKK was flown by the B777(730) and A350(736). I guess due to lack of aircraft, the B777 is temporarily being used for regional flights on certain days.
Aircraft fatigue. That is the name
frequent
flight cycles put more strain in aircraft fuselage and parts requiring more maintenance.
The signs of fatigue are more pronounced in aging aircraft (B747) and become more dangerous as the aircraft is continually exposed to atmospheric pressure. Flight cycles literally mean take-off and landing. Because of this, after a certain number of flight cycles an aircraft should be retired due to safety issue. This regulation is meant to prevent catastrophic failure in the air. In order to reduce this cycle PAL had to limit short haul flight unless necessary. The B747 was I think 18 years old then when SMC assumes.
Accumulating fatigue damage is an inevitable reality of flying metal airframes even carbon frames. Atmospheric pressure, G-loads, turbulence and other factors create the perfect environment for damaging stress.
Making Sense
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