Airlines In The Philippines III

[Gustavo J Oppenheimer]

COO Mike already said they are studying if flights there are feasible

[seven13]

PR to start flying to DAD on July 1 with 3X weekly service.

[xzibit31]

is this a knee jerk reaction to 5J's DAD flights too?

[Arianespace]

No. Its been in the drawing board earlier than 5J. The latter just have more planes to fly while the former grapples for 2 other neo on AOG. That is about to change in the coming months. These neo are long-range regional fleet, so we could see CTS and additional frequency to oz.

PAL president and COO Stanley Ng told reporters that the airline is targeting to grow passenger traffic between 10 and 20 percent this year.

If achieved, PAL will expand its passenger volume to at least 17.16 million, to as high as 18.72 million, from 15.6 million in 2024.

Ng draws optimism from PAL’s retrieval of aircraft that were grounded by issues on jet engines.

As the airline recovers its grounded units, he said it could scale up its flight frequency and explore new routes, particularly to high-demand destinations in Asia.
https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/04/10/2434751/pal-eyes-20-passenger-growth

We did discuss this issue 2 years ago.

[Arianespace]

Also,

PAL is also secured in the long term, especially as Airbus is on track to deliver the first batch of Airbus A350-1000s to the airline within the year.

The airline owned by the Tans will use the widebody A350-1000s to reach more cities in North America, where it is being challenged by foreign carriers Air Canada and United Airlines.

It will also deploy the aircraft for possible connections to Europe.

According to Ng, PAL expects to receive two more aircraft this year that would be useful in expanding its flight coverage.

I could already sense the first A35k is going to SFO

[filipinoavgeek]

As far as you are aware, does PR (or 5J) have any plans to serve Okinawa, Penang, or Phuket? Considering how popular Bali is here I'm surprised we don't have nonstops to Phuket (5J gave up on it over 10 years ago). Okinawa and Penang could also work as new destinations ala Da Nang/Chiang Mai/Sapporo; there was that one analysis showing that both had a sizable market out of MNL despite being unserved.

[Arianespace]

What fuels traffic is the Filipino tourists. Not the Thai's for that matter. Meaning, most Filipinos prefer to have holidays in Thailand for its unique cultural heritage, and not for beaches to which we have plenty. Phi phi islands are for people who never saw Palawan. Which I think most Filipino tourists already saw. That also explains Da Nang, and Siem Reap.

For the routes you mentioned, Zamboanga and Sandakan has more traffic than what Penang, used to be served by Air Asia, and Okinawa used to be flown by PAL.  Just look how many flights a small island like TWI have.

[romantic_guy08]

Looks like another B77W will be AOG... 7782 diverted to HND due to smoke in the cabin...

PAL flight bound for Los Angeles diverted to Japan after detecting aircon smoke

Metro Manila, Philippines - A Philippine Airlines (PAL) plane that left Manila on Wednesday to fly to Los Angeles, California was diverted to the Haneda Airport in Japan after smoke was detected in one of its air conditioning units, the airline said on Thursday, April 10.

In a statement, PAL said the Boeing 777 with registry number RPC 7782 landed safely.

The airline confirmed that 355 passengers were on board the flight PR102. According to PAL, the passengers remain on board as it works closely with Japan’s airport authorities for safe disembarkation.

[JNC03]

 

Philippine Airlines officially re-launched its PAL Aviation School through a newly signed partnership agreement with Australia-based Airways Aviation. With this relaunch, the PAL Aviation School will begin accepting applications for cadet pilot screening.

Successful candidates will undergo an 18-month intensive training program at Airways Aviation’s state-of-the-art facilities in Gold Coast, Australia, culminating in each cadet logging a total of 200 flying hours bringing them one step closer to becoming future PAL pilots.

[filipinoavgeek]

They're not affiliated with Omni in Clark anymore?

[JNC03]

The Department of Transportation issues a show cause order to Philippine Airlines after it received reports that PAL failed to assist passengers of PR102 after landing in Japan.

The flight bound for Los Angeles was diverted to Haneda Airport earlier on Thursday, April 10, after one of the two air conditioning units of the aircraft started emitting smoke.

“Upon landing, it was noted that no ground personnel or transport support were available to assist the passengers,” the order read.

The flag carrier has until 4 pm to respond.

[JNC03]

First Philippine Airlines A350-1000 parts is seen at hangar 261 in Hamburg with MSN 758 written on the rear fuselage section.

It will be transferred in Toulouse for assembly

[filipinoavgeek]

In a recent interview with Ch-aviation, Mike confirmed that they currently have no plans to order smaller aircraft like the Embraer E2. In fact, their long-term plan is to retire the ATRs, finding them not ideal due to fleet complexity. They're banking on airport upgrades to make those aircraft redundant. Of course, that might not be practical in practice since some airports will never be able to handle larger aircraft like El Nido.

[filipinoavgeek]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EeygYwd1x/
Meanwhile, Scoot has launched SIN-ILO today.

[Arianespace]

ATR is actually operated by a different airline, not CEB itself. Mike can say one thing and Lance another. If acquisition is any indication, then the latter has the last say. Wait, they did acquire a new airline... See how stark the difference was

[filipinoavgeek]

https://tribune.net.ph/2025/04/12/eu-visitors-rise-25-with-air-frances-flights
Meanwhile, it seems that AF's CDG flights are actually doing decently if not well and helping grow the Europe market. Load factors to Manila still need some work (but they seem pleased with it nonetheless) but the load factors to Paris are high.

(Slight tangent, but to anyone else here, does anyone know how to prevent replies from happening? This post was supposed to be a separate post but it ended up appearing as a reply. I still don't get how some posts can be not replies while others end up being replies.)

[Arianespace]

Just post it as a new topic without the "Re:"

Further to that

"We see more and more Filipinos travel to France and we carry those passengers directly to Paris. Since the launch in December, Air France flights have been progressively increasing. So, we’ve had good take-ups, approximately 80-90 percent seat factor going to France,” she added.

Inbound flights needing a push

“Admittedly, there are still a lot of improvements in terms of the inbound sector that we need to fill, but generally, we’ve seen quite good performance since the launch,” she stated.

Travel pattern simply means one thing. OFW traffic going one way for deployment in Europe. Traffic pattern was similar to Middle East circa 2000. Nowadays, return traffic is already there. Its good enough that they have that load factor.

I did remember someone told me about the one-way traffic pattern to EU. I think we were talking about KLM. UK has a better distribution, and it has more seats taken in front and for which reason it survives until covid, and they are seasonal too!

[filipinoavgeek]

So I'm guessing PR suspending London has less to do with the market and more to do with a lack of planes? If my recollection was correct they only suspended it due to the Ukraine invasion.

As for the outbound high factors, I was actually assuming a lot of that is tourist traffic (more Filipinos going to Europe) rather than solely OFWs.

[seven13]

PR is growing its VN presence from adding DAD starting 01JUL to adding HAN frequency starting 03JUN. Redeye flight is daily while adding Tu/Th/Sa frequency departing MNL at 0750H.

SGN is currently at 8X a week while HAN will be 10X a week

I guess VN is the new tourist hotspot.

[Arianespace]

Tourism traffic always goes back from where it came from. Data suggests AF passengers were not tourists but contract workers. One way traffic. Return would be after deployment ends, unless they find another job, in which case return would be postponed for quite some time. Compared with UK traffic, there are many professional Filipino workers resident in London that support the route bringing their family with them. PR just lacked planes after C11. In fact, the damage  caused by lack of planes is evident on their operational plans.

PAL doesn't have problems overflying Russian Airspace. We are the only western-oriented country able to do so. While uncertainty over Ukraine war may have played a role during those times, its not the reason why PAL left LHR. They gave up most of their new and more expensive A359s to stay afloat and survive. Together with that is one route the planes flew.