PAL Express Drops Interisland Hub Networks

20 February 2014
Philippine Airlines Express (PAL Express) will drop domestic hub network services in Cebu, Davao, Zamboanga and Iloilo beginning 1 March 2014. It will however maintain flights originating from Manila to different points in the Philippines. PAL Express will add Davao and General Santos to its route networks.

Cebu and other domestic hubs are being operated by Bombardier Q400 and Q300 turboprops and few A320's doing major runs at the country's bigger cities.

Meanwhile, Philippine Airlines and PAL Express flight from Manila to  Kuala Lumpur has been terminated in favor of code-share agreements with the national airline of Malaysia.

16 comments:

  1. What's the reason behind? I thought PAL is soaring up. This one looks like its crashing down.

    ReplyDelete
  2. what will happen to the personnel? are they being laid off?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Are you guys reading the notice?
    "Please be informed that starting March 1, 2014, your aline will implement domestic flight schedule changes as part of an overall strategy to further improve fleet performance"
    Read before assuming.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Naku mukhang nalulugi parin ang PAL. Bakit kasi hindi pa tayo ginagawang Category 1. Nakaka-wala kasi ng pera ang paggamit ng 747 at A340. O baka growing pains lang ito?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Guys... Its just a plan to revamp the flight schedule, resist airport traffic, and improve PAL's and PAL Express service.
    Its part of their plan on improving their brand. If they want to become Asia's best Airline once again. They must do what ever it takes to improve their service first so that people would stop complaining of the airline always being late...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, ontime performance with flights that don´t touch MNL on either end was quite good !
      So, this decision shows rather they were not able to make it work economically - not surprising for me.
      Too many regional hubs that do not reach the critical mass just don´t work.
      They´d have been much better off focusing on one strong secondary hub at either CEB or DVO and connecting the MNL-hub with a southern one by a high frequency shuttle.

      Delete
    2. Well, again having hubs cost money too. But that isnt the problem. The problem here is that PAL and PAL Express has a problem of having their flights bunch up in a time were things get out of hand. Trust me I flew with PAL a lot of times and it true. One of the reasons why PAL is always late as some point.
      With this changes, hopefully PAL and PAL Express will have less traffic on the way.
      And plus, its a great way for PAL to realize to do major changes on the flights that has little occupations. With those that has little occupations on one flight cost a lot on each flight so this may also change.
      So PAL is doing something good. Dont assume its a bad thing. Again, PAL has has recently received back its Category 1.
      They are now fully in function and need to examine each route for it to be fully profitable as possible. Its a way to transition to expand to EU and NA in the future.

      Delete
    3. I agree with you that it´s a good step.
      But ...
      This cutting will free more space for 5J and they will not let the opportunity pass now that they swallowed DG.
      What´s left is PQ/Z2 which did not yet have any considerable impact on the market.

      PR has to be very careful giving up too much domestic share.
      Let´s wait and see what their plans are ...

      Delete
    4. That is true, they are giving Cebu Pacific more opportunity. But though they suspended their hub doesnt mean they wont come back and reopen it.
      They could also use those planes that are being removed from the route to/from the hub and use it for something more profitable. Since more then 1 airline is using the same route, they loose like 50% of profit from that route so probably they are trying to keep away from competition from now on and trying to think forward of profitability.
      Besides, 5J seems likes they having tough time managing all of this domestic flights. All they are doing is constantly expanding but they arent managing things correctly and look, they are having planes being delayed, bad service, and planes almost crashing on the runway. They arent looking through those besides just opening new routes.
      Atleast PAL are doing whats right at this moment. And besides. With those unused planes, they can now expand around Asia instead of using it for just Domestic.

      Delete
  6. Bottomline 5J rules. Sad but PR now is a goner in the domestic arena. PR didn't do well in CRK...they closed it down. They are bleeding doing the intra vismin flights out of CEB....they will close their hub there.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I agree. They also "plan to revamp flight schedule" in CRK but it has been more than 1year since & CRK is still closed. Now PR gave the same reason for closing CEB hub. Deja vu?

    ReplyDelete
  8. PAL Management revamp anyone ? it looks like RSA cant implement his plans properly due to the old management style of PAL. Even PAL Express who has overtook PAL in domestic share before their rebranding is being dragged down by PAL itself.

    ReplyDelete
  9. PAL Management ? Hindi naman siguro. I worked for DELTA Tech Ops before and some of the pilots have a habit of delaying the flights just to get extra per diem... tsk tsk tsk. pano ba naman hindi madedelay ang flights. tapos rinig na rinig sa interphone si purser, captain after 10am na tayo mag close doors. ano ba yan

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dropping all the inter-island routes is a good step..kasi noon pa man diin ang domestic market ng PH is OVERSERVED..and bcoz of that it became UNPROFITABLE....kaya to further lessen the loss..kailangan i-drop ito..imagine nio ha..PAL use 340 in MNL-Davao, or 747 MNL-DVO, 330 on MNL-CEB, or sometimes 777 on MNL-CEB..na dapat hindi..pro wlang choice kasi yung 320 na dapat sa gnitong routes ay nasa international flights such as in Darwin-Brisbane, Singapore-Jakarta, sometimes Tokyo pa...
    They just implemented an efficient usage of the fleet..kasi kng MNL-other parts of PH, all can be serve by current 320s of PAL and Q400/Q300...
    ibigay nlng sa 5J ang inter-island..yung LCC model kasi fit din sa ganyang market..imagine ILO-CEB less than 1 hour pro yung expenses mu same lng ng more than an hour...

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think they are trying to reconstruct their schedules for easy flight transfers that coincides with their international flights..that's how other airlines make money thru connecting flights...

    ReplyDelete