May 27, 2013
 |
| PAL President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon Ang
said today that the
airline is set to fly Sao Paulo, in Brazil via Los Angeles soon. Ang
said regulatory approvals is already underway and they are just waiting
for the clearance for fly to south America's largest country. PAL is expected to extend one of its Los Angeles flights to Sao Paolo presumably the Airbus A340-300 morning departures. Under the current category 2 rating, the airline is allowed to fly only Boeing 747-400 and Airbus 340-300 aircraft to the United States. Ang said that North America is the most profitable destination for the airline accounting more than 40% of its revenue. The PAL President added that the Philippines has long secured from the United States fifth freedom rights to transport passengers originating in the US to a third country such as Brazil and vice versa. The airline intends to add Brazil to its international route network by 2014. Ang said the airline is expecting delivery of one more B777-300ER, 8 new generation A330-300, and 8 A321-200s in 2013. The new A330 is going to service the Middle East, Australia, Korea and Japan while the A321 is going to service some domestic and regional routes. Meanwhile, PAL is preparing a contingency plan in case the country fails to bag an upgrade in its aviation ratings this year as it seeks out lease proposals over some of its Boeing 777-300ER to defray the cost of maintaining the aircraft. PAL said it will add 4 interim fleet of A340-300 to augment its fleet to North America as contingency measure to the status quo rating if they cannot fly the B777 to the US . Ang disclosed that each aircraft costs $20 million a year to maintain and operate and some have no destination to fly to. The airline is supposed to use the six long haul planes for US expansion but only two of them fly to North America. |
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| PAL has prepared contingency plan in case the country fails to bag FAA category 1 ratings this year by seeking out lease proposals over some of its Boeing 777-300ER as it take four more A340s to fly San Francisco, Los Angeles and Honolulu. |
Congratulations PAL!
ReplyDeleteSoar High!
In case the country fails to bag FAA category 1 rating this year? Didn't the FAA confirm the ICAO's findings just recently? Well, what's going on now? Is the FAA in the process of restoring Category 1? How long will it take?
ReplyDeleteThe FAA did confirm the ICAO findings. Decision to lift the country's aviation status however is not within the hands of inspectors send to the Philippines for validation purposes. It is bestowed to the man they called John. This is where the FAA politics comes in. Reports told us that official audit results should come out sometime in June. But the one reporting is not the one deciding so we can never tell just yet what the real score is.
ReplyDeleteYou need a visa to transit in LAX, so I wonder why PAL decided to take this route. YVR or SYD would have been a better alternative since both are using the newer B773ER instead of the old A343.
ReplyDeleteThat question has already been answered if you care to read the post. LAX is one of the most profitable destination for the airline. Getting traffic to GRU from LAX is a bonus, and the convenience to connect to MNL is also enticing. TBIA is upgrading its facilities to do away your fears.
DeleteCare to read this:
http://currents.michaelsampson.net/2013/05/lax-in-transit.html
But they still lose the potential local market who plans to fly to GRU but now cannot because they don't have a US Visa. Note that Brazil allows Philippine Citizens to visit Brazil with no visa.
DeleteTHE "WHY" TO BRAZIL
ReplyDelete1.8 million reason to fly
Tourists from China and Latin America swarmed to the United States last year, while fewer Europeans came, according to a US Commerce Department report released Monday.
Latin American countries had the second-biggest gains, with Colombia, Argentina, and Venezuela roughly up around 20.0 percent and Brazil almost 19 percent.
There were 67.0 million international visitors that visited the United States.
Fact Sheet can be retrieve here
http://tinet.ita.doc.gov/outreachpages/download_data_table/Fast_Facts_2012.pdf