Airlines in the Philippines

[xzibit31]

QR adds Davao and Cebu 2018

https://www.eturbonews.com/179622/qatar-airways-reveals-aggressive-expansion-plans-opening-day-itb-berlin-2018

At the Qatar Airways press conference, attended by almost 200 members of the international media, H.E. Mr. Al Baker announced a raft of forthcoming global destinations for the airline in line with its expedited expansion plans, including the announcement that Qatar Airways will be the first Gulf carrier to begin direct service to Luxembourg. Other exciting new destinations to be launched by the airline include London Gatwick, United Kingdom; Cardiff, United Kingdom; Lisbon, Portugal; Tallinn, Estonia; Valletta, Malta; Cebu and Davao, Philippines; Langkawi, Malaysia; Da Nang, Vietnam; Bodrum, Antalya and Hatay, Turkey; Mykonos and Thessaloniki, Greece; and Málaga, Spain.

[Arianespace]

Not really news as far as this forum is concerned. It is already written since they signed that amended ASA. They have to otherwise they forfeit the morning slot at MNL.

Evodesire wrote

JJB talks about A350-1000 orders. https://businessmirror.com.ph/naia-terminal-2-to-become-domestic-hub-of-pal-cebu-pacific/

Bautista endorsed the A350-1000 as a better version of the A350-900, six of which PAL expects to be delivered this year.

Asked if PAL would buy A350-1000, which can seat 370 passengers against the 295 that A350-900 can seat, he said it is possible.

“The six on order cannot be replaced because four are already in the production line, but the remaining two could be converted into the A350-1000. But we need six, so maybe additional order of six more A350-1000,” he added, saying that PAL has six more additional options that it can exercise in 2019.

He said Airbus imposed no deadline on when to deliver the six more options, but added, “probably for the 2020 delivery.”

He doesn't say however that they are already talking to a lessor. Clever!

[Solblanc]

A lessor? That's very interesting indeed. And he mentions that six are required.

But don't they also need more A359s? Especially if they're going to start routes like ORD or SEA. Plus, won't LHR need a smaller plane? The 77W seems like overkill, and the airfares they're selling ex-lhr are pretty low. 6 A359s won't cover everything that they've announced that they'd want to start.

Unless the 330NEO is being looked at. That could provide some decent lift to SEA or Europe.

[idp5601]

Couldn't they just order more A359s + A35Ks though? Do they really have to pick one or the other?

And if they did order the A350-1000 I would expect it to have a less dense and slightly more premium-heavy config - possibly around 330-350 pax.

[Arianespace]

idp5601 wrote

Couldn't they just order more A359s + A35Ks though? Do they really have to pick one or the other?

And if they did order the A350-1000 I would expect it to have a less dense and slightly more premium-heavy config - possibly around 330-350 pax.

The A359 were really eastern seaboard plane. No thoughts were made about it being western. Considering the limited number of where it is intended to fly, there is no logic about acquiring more. 77w is simply better going westward. The A35K however is very promising as described in my post earlier. And yes they intend to make it less dense than the 77w, more likely around the range you quoted.

[idp5601]

So does this mean PR are considering the A330NEO for further expansion, especially into Europe? I don't see the 6 A359s being able to serve all the destinations they want to start.

Also, since the last time I asked this question it got buried by other posts, is there any update on PAL's strategic partner?

[Arianespace]

The NEO is the natural progression of the A330 fleet. Right now however, all growth are directed to North America, at least for the next 3 years if I'm not mistaken. And it simply does not cut it.

The A330NEO is a capable Transpac and European plane depending upon the airlines seating configuration. If PAL desires a less dense seat of around 250, it can comfortably open SEA, YVR, FCO, MXP, FRA and regional services to AKL and HNL. That is another set of six plane for thin routes. But that is not on the airlines radar right now.

At best, YVR, SEA, FCO, MXP, FRA, and LHR can be serve by a regular a359 with around 300 seats. In fact, the A359 on order will be rotated to LHR this year.  And that is just about it at the moment.

As to its strategic partner, no update up to this time. They are still in negotiation mode as to final pricing. Equity restructuring were however made to erase capital shortfall and clean its balance sheet after due diligence by the investor. That also resulted to decrease market value which PR Holding is not that happy to sell. It's 1 peso per share has current market value of 11 pesos per share on average. They would have wanted to sell around 12 but with 5b losses in 2017 due to forex and rising fuel,  that pretty much dampen the spirit.

[Solblanc]

If that is the case, would they be able to start the reconfiguration of the 777 fleet soon? The 777s could be made less dense, and once the a350s allow pal to offer premium economy in New York, it should be the case that premium economy will be offered in their key markets of lax and sfo as well.

The business class of the 777 is going to be interesting, too, as the Thompson product on the a330s and a350s becomes quite space-inefficient on the 777, unless they use the traditional vantage seat that Swiss and Malaysia are using which removes aisle-access for some passengers.

[idp5601]

Any idea on who PAL is talking to at the moment regarding the sale? Is ANA still interested?

And as for a new J product on the 77Ws, maybe they could go with something more space efficient - B/E Super Diamond, Zodiac Cirrus, Recaro CL6710, and the Apex Suites come to mind. But wouldn't it make sense for PR to have one standardized business class seat for long-haul planes? Consistency, after all, is very important to Skytrax and their rating system. IMO either the 777s get the Vantage XL or the A359 gets a new J seat - preferably the latter.

[Arianespace]

It has been stated in the forum awhile back. It still is current up to this date.

[Arianespace]

 

Solblanc wrote

 would they be able to start the reconfiguration of the 777 fleet soon?

It seems RP-C7776 just become a brand new plane arriving today. Maybe we could see whats new inside. Now its the 7775 turn which left yesterday.

[idp5601]

Does PR usually send its 77Ws to XMN for maintenance? I mean the LT Group already has LTP where the mono-class A330s were retrofitted, why send it all the way to China?

And is there a reason as to why I can't find -7775 on FR24 or any other flight tracking website?

[Solblanc]

Likewise, I thought LH Technik could handle all their needs in-house.

That being said, there hasn't been any fanfare about the interiors. There would clearly be press if they started offering premium economy on 777 routes. And it would be a little disappointing if they just replaced the recaro seats with the full-flat zodiac seats on the last 4 777s

[idp5601]

Solblanc wrote

That being said, there hasn't been any fanfare about the interiors. There would clearly be press if they started offering premium economy on 777 routes.

This is just a hypothesis, but what if PAL doesn't feel like they need to hype it up? Like, they can just mention 'hey we already have premium economy on our 777s' and not make it as big of a deal because it's not debuting on that particular aircraft type. If PR introduced W and all aisle-access J on the 77Ws first then they would understandably try to hype it up before the first plane rolls off the MRO facility. I also wouldn't expect them to hype up their new products on the A359 a lot and just mention it in passing because people already know it's available on some of their planes.

[Solblanc]

idp5601 wrote

This is just a hypothesis, but what if PAL doesn't feel like they need to hype it up? Like, they can just mention 'hey we already have premium economy on our 777s' and not make it as big of a deal because it's not debuting on that particular aircraft type. If PR introduced W and all aisle-access J on the 77Ws first then they would understandably try to hype it up before the first plane rolls off the MRO facility. I also wouldn't expect them to hype up their new products on the A359 a lot and just mention it in passing because people already know it's available on some of their planes.

Considering how they hyped up the A330 reconfiguration around four months before the first plane was actually reconfigured, and even gave a schedule of the deployment of the new products to their regional routes, that's pretty unlikely.

Besides, W transpac is a big deal. And marketing a W fare takes quite a bit of work.

My hunch is that, if there was a reconfig, they probably just put zodiac aura lite seats there, or at most, regular vantage, which won't have much fanfare indeed.

[idp5601]

Would be very disappointing if they did go with regular Vantage/Aura lite. I thought they were trying to go for a 5-star rating?

Anyways, we will see pretty soon if -67776 does have a new interior.

[Unbreakable]

Heard it was just a heavy check, and not a reconfig.

[Unbreakable]

Highly unlikely for the PR77w's to have Y+/Premium eco. It will mess up their ability to easily swap around aircraft due to different seating configurations of the old and new.

Besides the 4 newest 777s have confirmed that PR has no plans to introduce Y+ on their longhaul routes...at least not yet..until the A359s arrive.

[idp5601]

Fair enough, but I don't think the 777s will never ever have an updated J or Y+. I believe it's only a matter of time before they retrofit it, but I think PR would be better off re-configuring the 77Ws after all the A359s arrive.

[Arianespace]

More like standardizing the old one to the new one.