PAL to resume direct flights to New Delhi

By Paolo G. Montecillo

December 27, 2011

MANILA, Philippines–Philippine Airlines (PAL) has halted direct flights to New Delhi from Manila, less than a year since the route was announced, citing the lack of demand from local travellers.

But PAL president Jaime Bautista said the airline would not remove the Indian capital from its list of destinations. Instead, he said the company would mount flights to New Delhi via Bangkok, where the airline can pick up more passengers to ensure that the service stays sustainable, if not entirely profitable.

“We already stopped the direct flights to India last month,” Bautista told reporters in a recent interview.

PAL’s first direct flights to India were started late last March. This coincided with the easing of travel requirements for Filipinos to India with the introduction of the “visa on arrival” rule. PAL initially had six flights a week to New Delhi, three direct and three via the Thai capital of Bangkok.

The three direct flights a week were stopped last month, Bautista said. “The loads on direct flights were not that good,” he said, noting that load factors were averaging at around 50 percent.

Load factors refer to the ratio of seats sold on each flight relative to the number of seats available. With only half a plane full of passengers, Bautista said the company had to absorb losses on every direct flight to India.

“We will see in March next year if we will resume our direct flights but in the meantime we will develop the market while mounting via the Bangkok route,” said Bautista. 

“The loads are much better on flights via Bangkok,” Bautista said, noting that about 70 percent of seats were filled. The scrapping of direct flights to India was also part of the PAL’s scaling back of operations last September ahead of the retrenchment of 2,600 of its worker.

PAL used to mount three non-stop flights between the two capitals and three flights routed via Bangkok. The one-stop service via Bangkok (PR752) departs Manila every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 6:45pm. Arrival is at 9:05 pm the same day and in Delhi at 1:10 am the following day. The return flight, PR753, departs Delhi on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 2:45 am, reaching Bangkok at 8:25 am and Manila at 1:50 pm the same day.

The PAL official said it takes only 6.5 hours to reach New Delhi from Manila as against 8 hours if the route taken to New Delhi is via Bangkok.

PAL first flew to India in 1994 but discontinued it until recently when it resumed its service between Manila and New Delhi March 27 of this year.

The reduction of flights aimed to make the transition from in-house to outsourced services smoother.

New Delhi is the third of PAL’s new “missionary routes” the airline has launched, only to be met with tepid demand from the riding public.

In October of 2010, PAL had to stop flights to Brisbane less than a year of their introduction due to low demand.

Last April, the airline’s unprofitable flights to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia—which at the time were the only direct flight to the Middle East by any local airline—were also suspended.