PR1 at AKL

27 November 2016

CEB Joins Black Box

24 November 2016

Value Alliance members Vanilla Air and Cebu Pacific secured an equal (15% each) shareholdings alongside Scoot and Nok Airlines of Air Black Box (ABB) Asia Pacific, the joint venture ticketing platform responsible for making the Value Alliance a reality.

The remaining equity is held by ABB’s majority investor VaultPAD Ventures (40%), a US-based private airline travel and tourism venture accelerator.

Black Box is a sales and distribution booking and interline system for the airline members of the Value Alliance, comprising budget carriers in Asia which includes Cebu Pacific, Jeju Air, Nok Air, NokScoot, Scoot, Tigerair Singapore, Tigerair Australia and Vanilla Air.

Value Alliance partnership was formed earlier in May to enable direct interline ticket and ancillary sales among member airlines in one booking, a feat made possible using ABB’s platform.

The distribution solution provided by ABB is the world’s first multi-carrier interlining and booking system.

PAL Harness Sabre Tech

24 November 2016

By Mark Elliot

Philippine Airlines has chosen to adopt Sabre’s AirVision Commercial Analytics solution in order to improve its revenue-generating capabilities.

This new technology brings commercial data from several different departments into one place, in real time, easing the process of analysis and enabling improved decision-making.

It will also allow PAL to optimise revenue per passenger instead of the historically used revenue per seat model, and can even measure the impact of passenger behaviour.

“Sabre’s Commercial Analytics will allow Philippine Airlines to make more actionable decisions,” explained Dasha Kuksenko, Sabre’s vice president & regional general manager of airline solutions for Asia Pacific. “This solution also enables the airline to maximise revenue, improve efficiency and productivity, while driving a competitive advantage.

“By using Commercial Analytics, the Philippines flag carrier will have the ability to look at customer segments instead of simply fare purchases. This gives the airline more insights into their customers’ purchase propensities and the ability to recommend actions to best suit the business needs of the airline,” she added.

Dina May F. Flores, PAL’s vice president of revenue management, said that the new technology would “help us better understand our customers’ buying behaviour”.

Sabre and PAL are both currently at Association of Asia Pacific Airlines’ (AAPA) Assembly of Presidents in Manila.

Caticlan Opens A320 Traffic

19 November 2016

Caticlan Airport (Godofredo P. Ramos Airport) opened Friday passenger jet operations that accommodate limited A320 services with PAL Express (RP-C8606) flight from Manila making its inaugural touchdown on its newly extended 1,800 meter runway.

Cebu Pacific will introduce A320 on November 23, while AirAsia is expected to transfer its Kalibo flights beginning first week of December.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) has allowed passenger embarkation and disembarkation at the newly constructed Nabas Apron that has nine parking bays capacity pending completion of the new terminal building. Meanwhile, passenger processing will still be conducted at the old terminal.

Airport operator TransAire Development Holdings Corp. said the operation is still quite limited considering the capacity of the old terminal building.

TransAire recently expanded the airport terminal by building temporary structure to support the big number of passengers brought by the larger jet.

PR1 Lands in Lima

18 November 2016

PAA To Make Palawan 4th Hub

14 November 2016

Air Asia Berhad subsidiary is opening another hub in the Philippines as it grows its third hub in the country, Philippines AirAsia CEO Dexter M. Comendador said.

“Next year, we will be opening a new hub similar to what we’re doing in Kalibo and Cebu. Whatever we’re doing there, we will also do in Puerto Princesa. It’s our fourth hub, it means we’ll be flying from Puerto Princesa going international, we’re just waiting for the airport there to be finished,” says Commendador.

Air Asia Philippines (AAP) will offer flights from Puerto Princesa to Shanghai, Seoul, Taipei, and Kota Kinabalu.

PAA flies Cebu, Davao, Kalibo, Puerto Princesa, Tacloban, and Tagbilaran and international points to Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Kota Kinabalu, Macau, Busan, Shanghai, Beijing, and Hangzhou. It will expand Cebu by adding Taipei and Singapore to its route network beginning November 25.

The airline which originally operates out of Clark airport has its base in Manila, Kalibo and Cebu. It operates a fleet of 14 Airbus 320s with nine of its plane operating in Manila with one spare, while three other planes are deployed in Kalibo while Cebu has two planes.

PAA started operating in the Philippine in 2012 as AirAsia Inc., and merged with Zest Airways Inc. in October 2015 with the surviving entity named Philippines AirAsia Inc.

PR1 Skips US Airspace For Lima

14 November 2016

Duterte Keeps Word To Stay Away From America

True to his words that he will not go to the United States or fly over it, President Rodrigo R. Duterte will skip flying US airspace and that of their territories as he embarks on the longest travel of his life to the South American nation of Peru.

PR1 will leave noon on Thursday and will fly instead to Auckland in New Zealand for technical stop, arriving there at 2:30 in the morning where the Boeing 777-300ER plane will refuel and will leave two hours later for Lima, Peru arriving in the Peruvian Capital at 11:30 p.m.

Philippine Airlines could have taken him to Lima via the fastest route through Honolulu in Hawaii for technical stop but the President declined the route and instead insisted on taking different route away from US airspace as far as possible.

The longer route has something to do with immigration transfers and rudeness of some immigration staff, which Duterte suffered first hand despite holding diplomatic passport.

Duterte, then a Congressman, was invited officially to Brazil. As he recounts his ordeal:

“I was going to Brazil with some of the Congressmen and when we came back - because our entry, port of entry was L.A going there was Miami. You know when I was cleared by Customs, I was going out at the LA LAX airport. ”

“Here comes this black guy in uniform also black, with the pistol also black and his shoes was black and I thought that he was somebody - no slur intended that is his original color. And he accosted me and said 'May I see your passport.' So I gave him, it was a diplomatic passport because we were travelling most of the Congressman in my entourage were travelling with passport diplomatic. And he said, “Where is your letter of authority to travel?” And so that was the first time that I say it was missing. And I said with probably because that letter was addressed to the port of entry in South America, which is Brazil and it was not clipped and so probably it was not re-inserted in the passport and it was lost this way.”

“This guy brought me to a room to interrogate me and I said I’m a Congressman of my place, so what do you want to know. I said, if you detain me any further and if there’s a plane available going back to the Philippines now, I’ll be happy to ride and go home. That was the last time I went to America.”

The Philippines and the United States also has had a bad start on their relationship since Duterte assumed office in July due to interference by President Barack Obama over his brutal crackdown on illegal drugs.

PR1 would be taking the same return route on Sunday at 7:00p.m. towards Auckland and Manila.

The 2016 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders summit will be held from November 18-19. Peru first hosted the summit in 2008.

2nd Sokol Crashes

11 November 2016

A Sokol helicopter (SN926) of the Philippine Air Force (PAF) carrying twelve passengers and crew crashed landed Tuesday afternoon at Sitio Sabang, Bgy Cabayugan, Puerto Princesa City due to operative malfunction of one of its engine prompting the pilots, Major Michael R Yraolo and 1Lt Gino Glenn Solano, to perform emergency landing maneuvers.

No one was seriously hurt but four passengers, mostly government officials, suffered minor injuries when the helicopter tilted sideways upon landing.

The passengers were PNP Directorate for Operations head Chief Supt. Camilo Cascolan, Region 4B director Chief Supt Wilben Mayor, Deputy DO Chief Supt. Nestor Bergonia, and Chief Supt. Amador Corpus from the Directorial Staff.

Also on board were helicopter crew Sgt Dunhill R Guanzon and A1C Mark Phol T Masangkay.

The cause of the engine failure is still being investigated. Meanwhile, remaining six other Sokol helicopters are grounded pending results of the crash investigation.

Alphaland Graduates Charters, Applies Scheduled Flights

7 November 2016

Charter airline Alphaland Aviation, Inc., is spreading its wings beyond Balesin airport as it files petition before the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to be granted authority (CPCN) to operate domestic scheduled air transportation services to the entire country. It currently operates Royal Star Aviation license.

The airline flies a pair of ATR 72-500 planes, two British Aerospace (BaE) Jetstream 32’s, and DO328's out of Manila and Clark airports with the aims of having regular scheduled flights not only to E.L. Tordesillas airport but also to other resorts.

"During the upcoming holiday season, we expect to have at least five Manila to Balesin - Balesin to Manila flights per day, i.e., two in the morning, one in the afternoon, and two in the evening," Alphaland Chairman Roberto V. Ongpin said.

"This will total 340 passengers per day and, if the demand is greater, we can schedule additional flights from Clark." adds Ongpin.

Alphaland Aviation possesses a pair of morning departure slots and evening arrival slots at Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

T'Way Adds Cebu

Begins 15 December

5 November 2016

South Korean low cost carrier T’Way Air is expanding flight services to the Philippines beginning with Cebu offering Daegu – Cebu route five (5) times a week using Boeing 737-800 aircraft. First flight is scheduled on December 15 with the following schedule

TW137 TAE2130 – 0105+1CEB 737 x26
TW138 CEB0205 – 0700TAE 737 x37

The airline also proposes to fly Seoul to Legaspi, Iloilo, Puerto Princesa and Davao.

Qatar Flies B787 To Clark

3 November 2016

Qatar Airways downgrades flight services to Clark International Airport as it replaces existing daily Doha service of Boeing 777-300ER to a smaller plane effective October 30 with new Boeing 787-800. It is the first airline to fly the type at Clark Airport and the fourth airline to fly the type in the country.