Airlines In The Philippines III

[Arianespace]

You are asking the wrong question. Can you ride Air Asia by not booking at Air Asia MOVE (CRS)?

You can't because booking agents like expedia and booking uses the booking engine of MOVE. Its similar to how CEB uses Navitaire CRS or PAL use of Sabre or Amadeus CRS, or GDS if you will. They are all "agents" of the airline. Thats why they are all called ticketing and selling agents. It is where you book your ticket.

Agents mean you work for the airline, because that is your Principal. Whatever binds the agent binds the principal. simple.

[justhorace]

My answer to your question is yes, I can. Air Asia MOVE isn't Air Asia's CRS. That's the whole point.

It's confusing because Air Asia MOVE uses the domain "airasia.com" when it's not the web platform to directly access Air Asia's CRS. It's not like philippineairlines.com or cebupacificair.com. In fact, they're rebranding it as "MOVE" soon, dropping the Air Asia branding.

It's a weird set up since as a customer, you are left with no direct means of booking Air Asia online through the airline's own CRS.

Even Vince Dizon acknowledged the distinction. He knew Air Asia MOVE was a wholly different entity than Air Asia. And I think the government made a misstep here, that's why CAB has yet to issue the stop order. They know CAB has no jurisdiction.  

EDIT: CAB issued the order yesterday, but I still believe it has no jurisdiction. It feels like a face-saving move given that the Secretary had already made public comments against it. This will be damning for Air Asia since they don't have a separate web platform under its own branding (as they all shoved it under MOVE). People will have to go through other OTAs to book.

[Arianespace]

Air Asia uses Navitaire CRS similar to CEB. MOVE is just like Kayak or Booking. Still, agent of AAP. If it is otherwise, they couldn't board the plane. The fact that booked passengers can board AAP flight is already an admission of their agency. While I respect your position on jurisdictional issue, I beg to disagree based on the circumstances I already mentioned, as its ticketing agent. Anyway, both of us are not the adjudicators. CAB is. Lets see what they can come up with.

[justhorace]

Agency in a sense that it sold the ticket, but not a ticketing agent that should be under CAB jurisdiction. Hehe, a last hurrah. But yeah, let's just wait and see!

In other news, what's that cryptic Facebook post by CebPac about? The one with a yellow heart beside a purple heart?

China Airlines and Southwest recently announced a partnership. Could it be another Southwest partnership, too? I couldn't think of anything else to associate with a purple-colored heart.

[chowpau]

Cebu Pacific and Flyadeal perhaps

[JNC03]

Cebu Pacific and Flyadeal partnership

CEB will wetlease two A320 to the airline and share knowledge with each other, this includes helping 5J to mount flights in KSA


On the other topic PAL will have something that we are all waiting for since 2023

[JNC03]

Air India, India’s leading global airline, today announced the launch of non-stop flights between Delhi and Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, starting 01 October 2025.

Air India’s service to Manila will operate five days a week – on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays – using the airline’s Airbus A321neo aircraft


https://www.airindia.com/in/en/newsroom/press-release/Air-India-to-operate-non-stop-flights-between-Delhi-and-Manila.html

[seven13]

PR-AA on NorthAm via HNL?

PR has since been actively engaging in codeshare partnerships with different airline. The most recent is PR-SV on both carrier’s RUH flight and SV’s JED. Likewise, PR is aligning its DOH flight starting mid-June departing PH early evening and arriving DOH just about midnight (most likely to facilitate transfer to QR’s EU flights). I wonder if PR will upgauge DOH to a triclass for this move.

[JNC03]

Delta Air Lines is looking to open an Airbus A350 pilot base in Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. This will allow Delta to transition a significant portion of its Seattle transpacific operations from the A330-900neo, which is currently the predominant Delta widebody in Seattle. JonNYC reported on BlueSky that the company intends to begin these operations either in late 2025 or early 2026.


https://simpleflying.com/delta-air-lines-looking-airbus-a350-base-seattle/

[Gustavo J Oppenheimer]

https://www.philstar.com/business/2025/06/06/2448459/air-india-mounting-new-delhi-manila-flights



From the article:

Arcilla also views Air India’s entry as the start of more connections between Manila and other cities in India such as Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

“That (opening of more flights) usually follows after the main gateway is developed, because it takes a lot of resources also to develop secondary gateways,” Arcilla said.

[ewh1]

I wonder if this Air India flight will see more North American South Asians connecting through Manila? Certainly opens up that possibility in the future.

[Evodesire]

So when will PAL refurbish its A321ceos? Will we wait until 2026 again? Honestly, they are somewhat a huge embarrassment for our local aviation industry as they carry the country's name and colors. High prices, substandard product. Okay, granting that they have old planes, but even those cabins are old. Unbelievable that they would even fly planes without water.

[JNC03]

I noticed A321ceos at LTP now

Likely one of them will undergo cabin reconfiguration right now, and its off times for travel now as the rainy season approaches good for grounding planes to fix its issues due to age or reconfigure them

[Evodesire]

3Q is usually low season for local airlines. Hope this is it. But granting that the A321ceos will be refurbished, I hope they do the same thing to the A330s. Really stupid that they have an "OFW A330" and "Aussie A330" config. And PAL keeps saying "our OFWs are our heroes" but they offer substandard product.

[xzibit31]

I flew on RPC-8782 (is this one of the OFW Express birds?) last June 3, from Cebu to Manila on flight PR1864. I sat in Economy, and it felt really really tight. Even though I had an aisle seat, I had to sit sideways for about an hour because the two people beside me in seats A and B were quite big (they had to request for extension belts. That's how big they were).

I also noticed that Premium Economy wasn’t much better. There was a little more legroom, but not enough to be worth the extra cost.

Business Class also surprised me—it looked small and cramped. You even have to turn sideways just to get into the seat.

The whole aircraft was really claustrophobic, to say the least.

I really hope they update the layout of their planes that need it. Philippine Airlines charges high prices, but the service and comfort don’t match.

[Evodesire]

xzibit31 wrote

I flew on RPC-8782 (is this one of the OFW Express birds?) last June 3, from Cebu to Manila on flight PR1864. I sat in Economy, and it felt really really tight. Even though I had an aisle seat, I had to sit sideways for about an hour because the two people beside me in seats A and B were quite big (they had to request for extension belts. That's how big they were).

I also noticed that Premium Economy wasn’t much better. There was a little more legroom, but not enough to be worth the extra cost.

Business Class also surprised me—it looked small and cramped. You even have to turn sideways just to get into the seat.

The whole aircraft was really claustrophobic, to say the least.

I really hope they update the layout of their planes that need it. Philippine Airlines charges high prices, but the service and comfort don’t match.

I think this was a former tri-class, which was "downgraded" to that SMC interior. Imagine spending $$$ for a downgrade. What keeps "upgrading" is the air fares.

[xzibit31]

It probably is. I think it’s one of those SMC birds.

It’s really disheartening to see PAL going downhill.

Honestly, I’m not looking forward to my ICN trip with PR on Business at the end of the month.
If it were up to me, I wouldn’t have chosen PAL.

[JNC03]

AirAsia Group will be heavily present at Paris Airshow next week, they will also order some planes and awarded by skytrax as best LCC

I hope Philippines can have something amid the "bullying" described by Tony Fernandes to his airline unit in the country.

[JNC03]

Philippine Airlines (PAL) is improving its customer service in order to boost its business, PAL Holdings vice president Captain Stanley K. Ng said Monday.

Speaking at the sidelines of DITO CME's 'The 100 Presidents Golf Cup' in Dasmarinas, Cavite, Ng said he thinks things will still be good in the second quarter because there is still demand for travel.

"It's just, of course, competition is coming in, so more challenges with the fares. But, however, if there's demand, there's hope," the businessman said.

Asked how the airline plans to stand out against the competition, Ng said, "What we've always done, of course, we improve our product, improve our services, improve our back-end system to make the customer journey better."

He also said the carrier will buy new and better planes, and refurbish all its Airbus A321 CEO airplanes that fly to regional destinations.


https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/6/9/pal-eyes-improving-customer-experience-to-boost-business-1541

[Evodesire]

JNC03 wrote

He also said the carrier will buy new and better planes, and refurbish all its Airbus A321 CEO airplanes that fly to regional destinations.

Buy new and better planes = 9 A35Ks and 13 A321Ns. Same old recycled story again and again. Thats what he actually means.

JNC03 wrote

Asked how the airline plans to stand out against the competition, Ng said, "What we've always done, of course, we improve our product, improve our services, improve our back-end system to make the customer journey better."

What we've always done? They've barely even made improvements in their product. Downgrading and densifying A330s is improve product?

Knowing PAL, unless its done, its all lip service and recycled news.