Emirates Lands in Cebu

30 March 2016

WATER CANNON SALUTE. Friends, let's welcome the lovely Boeing 777 from Dubai! #DubaiCebu #WelcomeEmirates #StartHere pic.twitter.com/S8rHoFr9KM

— Mactan Cebu Airport (@MactanCebuAirpt) March 30, 2016

Emirates Airlines begin its inaugural triangular flight to Cebu and Clark as the Boeing 777-300ER plane touched down at 3:40pm on Wednesday at Mactan Cebu International Airport, strengthening international connectivity to two of the Philippines’ fastest-growing international hubs.

"The circular flight with rights to two domestic destination is a new trend for Emirates catering to the market demand," Badr Abbas, Emirates' Senior Vice President, said during a press conference at the Cebu International Airport. The flight operates on Dubai-Cebu-Clark-Dubai route.

Emirates flights to Cebu and Clark depart daily from Dubai as EK338 at 02:55 hours, arriving at Mactan-Cebu International Airport at 15:50 hours. The service then departs from Cebu at 17:20 hours and arrives at Clark International Airport at 18:50 hours. The return flight departs Clark at 20:20 hours, arriving at Dubai International Airport at 01:20 hours the next day.

The airline operates 25 flights weekly to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Emirates Timeline in the Philippines

June 17, 1990: Emirates launched their twice a week flights on the Manila–Bangkok–Dubai route, and once a week flight on the Manila–Dubai route using an A310 and A300 aircraft interchangeably.

March 27, 1996: Emirates introduced a bigger aircraft, Boeing 777 on the route, used interchangeably with Airbus A330.

March 1, 2007: From 10 flights per week, Emirates commences its two flights daily non-stop on the Manila–Dubai route.

February 18, 2014: Emirates first flight to Clark. The airline flew daily using B777-300ER until it susspends service after six months of operations due to poor sales on May 1, 2014.

October 7, 2014: Emirates introduced A380 special commercial flight to Manila which brought home more than 300 passengers.

In 2013, Emirates invested almost $100 million through direct expenditures of ground handling company DNATA in the Philippines.

March 29, 2016: Emirates increases its Dubai-Manila (DXB-MNL) flights with additional four weekly flights.

March 30, 2016: Emirates launches its first Dubai-Cebu-Clark-Dubai circular service, marking its first entry in Cebu City and its re-launch in Clark, where we first started in 2013.

PAL Flies Doha

28 March 2016

Philippine Airlines (PAL) will relaunch today its regular flights to Doha, bringing its Middle East points to six.

PR 656 will depart Manila at 0030 arriving Doha at 0815, while its return flight PR 657 departs at 1005  arriving Manila at 0350 the following day.

PAL will fly five times weekly services to Qatar via Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with Airbus 330-300 aircraft.

The airline offers economy and premium economy class services to Doha with free wireless Internet for 30 minutes and 15 megabytes of video streaming using passengers’ personal devices through the app myPAL player, which can be downloaded through iTunes or Play Store.

The new flight services will also result in the re-scheduling of flights to Abu Dhabi from morning flight out of Manila to midnight departure.

B-52 flies Back To Clark

First PH Military Air Show Set 

27 March 2016

The Philippine Air Force (PAF) in coordination with the United States Air Force (USAF), and Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) will set a military aircraft exhibit on April 9, 2016 in Haribon Hangar inside Clark Air Base, Pampanga as a prelude to Balikatan Exercise 2016.

The aircraft that will be on static display for the viewing public are the following:

PHILIPPINE AIR FORCE (PAF)

- One (1) C295 Martime Patrol Aircraft
- One (1) C-130 "Hercules" medium lift/transport aircraft
- One (1) PZL W-3 "Sokol" CUH/Rescue Helicopter
- Two (2) UH1H Combat Utility Helicopter
- Two (2) OV-10C/M "Broncos" FAC/attack aircraft
- Two (2) MG520 "Defenders" Scout/light attack helicopters
- Two (2) FA-50PH "Fighting Eagle" light fighter/combat aircraft
- Four(4) B412 Combat Utility Helicopters

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE (RAAF)

One (1) P-3C "Orion" anti-submarine/maritime patrol aircraft.

UNITED STATES AIR FORCE (USAF)

- Eight (8) A-10 "Thunderbolt" attack aircraft
- Three (3) HH-60 "Pave Hawk" Combat Utility Helicopters
- Three (3) C-130J "Hercules" Medium lift/transport aircraft
- One (1) Boeing E-3 Sentry AWACS
- One (1) B-52 "Stratofortress" strategic bomber
- One (1) C-17 "Globemaster" Heavy lift/ transport aircraft
- One (1) RQ-4 "Global Hawk" unmanned surveillance aircraft
- Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC)
- PJ flying boat

The different military aircraft will be shown to the public during the half day open house.

Bee's Bigger Cousin

27 March 2016

Image from Pinoy Aviators

V Air Introduces MNL Flights

27 March 2016

Taiwanese low-cost carrier V Air introduces new flight service to Manila today March 27, 2016. The airline is scheduled to operate this route 4 times a week with Airbus A320 aircraft. ZV086 leaves Manila Terminal 1 at 20:00 arriving 22:00 in Taipie every Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Meanwhile ZV085 leaves Taipie at 17:00 arriving Manila at 19:00 hours.

First PH-Made Satellite Launched

Visits International Space Station Before Deployment 

23 March 2016

The Philippines has launched its third satellite Wednesday at Cape Canaveral, Florida, a first among two that is expected to be orbited soon. It was flown into space at 10:00 a.m. Manila time. The spacecraft carrying the satellite is expected to arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday where it will be delivered to the Japanese Experiment Module before it will be released into orbit between April 4 and 7.

The micro satellite named Diwata, is the first Filipino-made and co-developed weather satellite, officially called the Philippine Scientific Earth Observation Microsatellite (Phil-Microsat). Diwata also caused the creation of Philippine Space Agency.

The Philippines launched its first communication satellite named Agila 1 into space in 1996. It was acquired from Indonesia, which launched it from Cape Canaveral in 1991. The second Philippine communication satellite was Agila 2 launched from Sichuan, China, in 1997. It was subsequently sold in 2009 and now carries the name ABS-3, after Mabuhay Satellite Communications, a subsidiary of Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., sold it to Bermuda-based Asia Broadcast Satellite Holdings Ltd. for P400 million.

The satellite was developed by Department of Science and Technology (DOST), University of the Philippines (UP), together with Tohoku University (TU) and Hokkaido University (HU) of Japan, which handed-over the project to Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) following the completion of the assembly and testing of the 50-kg Philippine Earth Observation Microsatellite.

Science Secretary Mario Montejo said Diwata was part of around 3,375 kilograms of science and research, crew supplies and vehicle hardware that would be brought to the International Space Station (ISS) by Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft as part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (Nasa) fifth resupply mission to the ISS.

Carlos Primo David, executive director of the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development, said that once Diwata has been released into orbit, Philippine scientists will have full control over it.

David said that control of the satellite will be done first by Filipino Engineers who are stationed at Tohoku, Japan after which command will be transferred later to the Philippine Earth Data Resources Observation (Pedro) in Subic, Zambales province, which will receive and store data sent by the satellite. Agila 1 and Agila 2 were also being controlled at Subic Space Center.

It is expected that Diwata, which will stay in orbit for around 20 months, will take an average of 3,600 high-resolution images of the Philippines daily using its four cameras.

According to Phil-Microsat program head Joel Marciano Jr., Diwata is equipped with a high-precision telescope capable of determining the extent of damage from disasters; a space-borne multispectral imager with liquid crystal tunable filter that could monitor changes in vegetation and ocean productivity; a wide-field camera that could observe cloud patterns and weather disturbances; and a middle-field camera, an engineering payload that would be used to assist in determining the location of each image captured by the other optics.

Part of the three-year program is the development of a second microsatellite (DIWATA 2) to be launched in 2017.  More details of the program here.

PR 122 Flight Inaugural at LAX

18 March 2016

Philippine Airlines opens Cebu's first long haul destination to Los Angeles thrice weekly as it flies the A340-300  every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday leaving Mactan airport at 6:30pm and arriving at 5:55pm same day. It will leave Tom Bradley airport at 8:40pm arriving Cebu at 4:40am two days after.

CEB Flies Guam

16 March 2016

Low cost carrier Cebu Pacific (CEB)has flown its first US destination as it launched four weekly flights between Manila and Guam on March 15, 2016 bringing to three the operators to Marianas.

CEB is the first and only low-cost carrier flying to Guam which flies every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, on Airbus A320-200 aircraft.

The airline departs Manila at 3:45 a.m., arriving in Guam at 10:15 a.m. The return flight departs Guam at 12:30 p.m., arriving in Manila at 2:55 p.m.
                                                                                                                               Image Courtesy Lewis Santos

Alphaland Showcases Brand New ATR72

3 March 2016

Alphaland Aviation has bought its first brand new Avions de Transport Régional (ATR72-500) turboprop aircraft ferried Tuesday from Toulouse Blagnac to Manila.

The brand new ATR plane is valued US$8 million and seats 68 passengers to service the exclusive Balesin Island Club Resort. It will be the second ATR on its fleet of 5 aircraft.