Airlines in the Philippines

[romantic_guy08]

Eurest wrote

Thanks, the YVR airport peeps seemed to really have kept things hush hush, considering the CI incident earlier in the day.

There's not even enough slack in the A343 fleet to compensate in January?
PR really does need more long-haul widebodies to address demand
I would have thought they would just cancel a January flight as those are often minimally loaded.
Rescheduling it would indicate otherwise.

It was in a news in YVR actually... Apparently second incident for PR on the same plane (?).

[Eurest]

I only saw 2 online articles about it and they weren't very specific, plus I'm skeptical of newspapers reporting aviation incidents as there's often a disconnect with facts and what's actually written, sometimes they even tend to exaggerate.
I hope my earlier use of the words hush-hush makes no one things there's a serious incident being covered up here. AV Herald doesn't have it reported as well and they seem to be kept abreast of incidents.

TransportCanada peeps seem to have not yet received an official incident report from YVR airport so it seems it was quite minimal and things may have been managed.
If there was substantial damage to the engine cowling or fuselage skin (areas often hit by jetbridges), I doubt the plane would not have been moved to another gate to prevent further damage.
They were probably just worried about hairline cracks that might worsen while under pressure in flight.

[Solblanc]

When PR announced that they were looking at adding another destination in Europe, I thought "Well, they don't even fly to LHR daily"


...and this pretty much covers that

http://airlineroute.net/2016/02/03/pr-lhr-jun16/

Now that is one route that was successfully grown. If RSA didn't spend so much to get those LHR slots, we'd never have seen this route grow to what it is now.

[seven13]

Looking at the loads, I can say January was a quite a busy month for PR especially transpac operations. I think, LAX and SFO were almost quite full during January.

2 frame of A340 doing PR112/113/114/115,
1 frame for PR100 (certain days on A330)
2 frame for PR211
1 frame for PR116/117 (now temporarily redeployed to JFK)

I guess, these ex-IB are quite busy as well.

[seven13]

Now I'm wondering, which slots were they from. I believe GA got their LHR slots form TG (well, according to anetters). Just several posts back, arianespace already mentioned that PR already secured daily frequencies when they move to their current schedule.

[Eurest]

LHR slots have different values depending on the time of the day, with mornings by far the most expensive, and decreasing throughout the day with late evenings being least valuable.

For ultra long haul of 12hrs above, the late night slots seem to be preferred by travelers as they can sleep during the trip and arrive refreshed starting the day

LHR slot pairs are also valued based on the frequency, with a week frequency the most expensive and a day's pair the cheapest

PR effectively "returned" the 4 days afternoon slot pairs to the airport slot coordinator to get a daily slot which had to be later at night so that the values of the initial 4 afternoon equaled what eventually became the 4 late night, plus 1 TH slot in 2015 and the 2 remaining slots for 2016

Seemingly, in terms of LHR slot values

4 afternoon slot pairs = 4 late night slot pairs  + 1 TH slot pairs + 1 TU slot pair + 1 SA slot pair


The UK gov't seems to have advised the LHR slot coordinator to priotitize sale of slots to ASEAN airlines after seeing PR not only grow PH-UK traffic, but also help stimulate bilateral trade as well
VN got LHR slots last year and GA this year. I'd be pretty sure both VA and GA will eventually get daily slots to LHR in the near future if they are able to show they can grow the route like PR did

Another EU gov't has seen the positive effect of PR servicing the UK's primary gateway on bilateral trade and has effectively invited the new service with what I'm told as incentives. Whether those are just discounted airport and navigation fees or a much broader economic package, I guess time will only tell.

[seven13]

this is great for PR! But the early AM arrival is the most ideal slots for Asian carriers; nonetheless, it's now better to have a daily flight compared to before.
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JJB mentioned on his interview that there's an upcoming codeshare agreement from another airline from a different region, I'm guessing it's an EU carrier to support PR's 2 point in the EU. If it's Rome, possibly with Alitalia? Frankfurt with Lufthansa and Paris with Air France? How is PR's relationship with these carriers? Base from stories I heard, PR and LH used to work closely?

[Arianespace]

Just a correction from my earlier post.

Arianespace wrote

RP-C7775 is in Manila grounded up to this writing for some xray work at LTP. The plane flew some hours later after hitting the airbridge last Friday at YVR. I think just some compulsory maintenance checks just in case before it fly again tonight as PR126.

RP-C7775 never left the grounds of YVR after its collision with the jet bridge. It stayed there until the 5th of February 2015. The damage was extensive that it was not permitted to fly by TSB until the frame's integrity was checked by Boeing. What was seen the following day arriving from JFK was another B777 plane which is not 7775.

It is now going back into service yesterday and has since flown to LAX. The rest of the story is safely keep under wraps, successfully at that. Sorry for the reporting errors guys.

[tigz]

February 05 2016 you mean. Obviously Transport Canada are not taking any chances. YVR have had some incidents lately including the most recent of a Westjet having to reject take-off after blowing left tires!

[Eurest]

Instead of fighting the ME3 politically, BA and the IAG group seem to be keen on marketing an emotional tie with Indian passengers, who are the major market of the ME3

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PR codesharing with AZ makes sense for both parties, as PR gives a path to SE Asia for AZ and PR gets to minimize the costs of the Italy flights with AZ
Not to mention the established ties with stakeholder EY, who are hell bent on revitalizing the Italian flag carrier

That said, I was still hoping for PR to codeshare with a carrier like B6 or AS to expand its American presence.
Perhaps even a Latin American carrier to get some ties going.

Could the CDG slot issues be related to next week's announcements?

[seven13]

Now that PH has signed the ASEAN open skies, is it safe to assume that PR has plans to take advantage of it. Hmmmm....a revival of SMC's Cambodia Air plans? Or was that just for escaping the CATII of USFAA?

[Arianespace]

tigz wrote

February 05 2016 you mean. Obviously Transport Canada are not taking any chances. YVR have had some incidents lately including the most recent of a Westjet having to reject take-off after blowing left tires!

Thanks for the head up mate.

Eurest wrote

PR effectively "returned" the 4 days afternoon slot pairs to the airport slot coordinator to get a daily slot which had to be later at night so that the values of the initial 4 afternoon equaled what eventually became the 4 late night, plus 1 TH slot in 2015 and the 2 remaining slots for 2016

Seemingly, in terms of LHR slot values

4 afternoon slot pairs = 4 late night slot pairs  + 1 TH slot pairs + 1 TU slot pair + 1 SA slot pair

Actually, PAL got 5 slots not 4.

seven13 wrote

Base from stories I heard, PR and LH used to work closely?

Are you insinuating something?

It appears now that the problem about EU expansion is not about biting more than what it can chew. Its about scheduling them to fit into the slot available in MNL as it is available in CDG, FCO, and FRA. and they are having trouble finding one until they finally get one cleared. Actually, they are clearing them for two more. CEB also got this problem for its flight to MEL and it has not found a flight to bump off its gate.

[Arianespace]

seven13 wrote

Now that PH has signed the ASEAN open skies, is it safe to assume that PR has plans to take advantage of it. Hmmmm....a revival of SMC's Cambodia Air plans? Or was that just for escaping the CATII of USFAA?

Forget Cambodia. Its dead.

For the Philippines, Open Skies benefit only one airline, SQ. Go figure?

[xzibit31]

Is it beause SQ operates 4 times a day out MNL and MI, which is a subsidiary of SQ,  also operates in KLO, CEB, and DVO?

PS: been a long time lurker here. its very interesting to read all your conversations. :)

[eagle1974]

same here. i learn a lot from this forum. a refreshing break from the negativity of the other one

[seven13]

I don't mean anything, HAHA! I was just inclined to believe that LH and PR had good relationship before .
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Honestly, I'm sure you've noticed that I'm a newbie on this PH or commercial aviation, in general. I'm just starting to learn more about it, hence, my frequent questions/comments. I'm very glad to meet you (SSC days), Eurest and the others here to give valuable insights, news, updates, history and what others! Thanks for all the insightful inputs!
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Anyway, returning to topic...I'm guessing, PR applied for an AM arrival in EU (just the same as other SEAsian carriers) with late night to midnight departure from MNL. So it means, currently, PM slots/gates are already full. Soon AUH will be departing half past midnight once the tag-on DOH starts and I'm picturing that T2 will be festive at that time-frame. There's quite hefty of flights departing late evening.

[Arianespace]

Nope. It opens SQ window to fly to the US from MNL in the future, other than servicing most of our regional airports with unlimited seats from elsewhere in the ASEAN region. This is just the first step of integration. The next step is more interesting. But I will defer discussion to some later time because it is still speculative today. Why speculative? Because it depends upon the success of this ASEAN project which will manifest itself 10-20 years from now.

[Arianespace]

seven13 wrote

I don't mean anything, HAHA! I was just inclined to believe that LH and PR had good relationship before

They do have good relationship, airline wise. But the board happens to have a different view considering some of them also owns Fraport.

[romantic_guy08]

Arianespace wrote

Nope. It opens SQ window to fly to the US from MNL in the future, other than servicing most of our regional airports with unlimited seats from elsewhere in the ASEAN region. This is just the first step of integration. The next step is more interesting. But I will defer discussion to some later time because it is still speculative today. Why speculative? Because it depends upon the success of this ASEAN project which will manifest itself 10-20 years from now.

Does the ASEAN Open Skies agreement allow for 5th freedom routes to destinations outside of ASEAN?

[Eurest]

I believe the 3rd, 4th and 5th freedom traffic rights inn the ASEAN MAAS are limited to

i) Within sub-regions , which are IMT-GT, IMS-GT, BIMP-EAGA & GMS
ii) between sub-regions
iii) ASEAN Capitals, with a cap on slots given to airlines exercising this right

ASEAN SAM is not like the EU SAM, where carriers from member states are allowed to connect two international points outside their home country.