PAL Earns 4th Star Rating From Skytrax

Product Consistency is Key

February 8, 2018


Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has been Certified with the 4-Star Airline quality ranking by SKYTRAX, the UK-based international air transport rating organisation after reviewing airline services in December last year.

The 4-Star Airline rating is a mark of quality distinction that recognises excellent standards of Product and Staff service across different assessment categories for both the Onboard and Airport environment, with Philippine Airlines noted for providing much improved standards of product and service quality to its customers.

Philippine Airlines achieved this coveted rating after Skytrax conducted a rigorous audit across the airline’s inflight and ground service for both international and domestic flights and noted major enhancements on its end-to-end passenger experience and distinct whole-hearted service called Buong Pusong Alaga.

Commenting on the 4-Star Airline Rating awarded to Philippine Airlines, Edward Plaisted, Skytrax CEO said: “this recognises the great improvements that the airline has introduced over the last 2 years, both in terms of product change and development and enhancement of the front-line staff service. New and retrofitted aircraft have played an important part in the quality improvement process, and this looks set to develop further when Philippine Airlines introduce the A350 into their fleet. We look for consistency of quality in the 4-Star rating, and we now entrust Philippine Airlines to ensure this is duly delivered to customers.”





“This is a big win for the Philippines...Our achievement is the country’s achievement and we share this with all Filipinos around the globe.” said PAL Chairman & CEO Dr. Lucio C. Tan.

“Our Get That Star journey began in 2016. Our efforts over the last two years have borne fruit,” said PAL President and COO Jaime J. Bautista.

Bautista added that “Since 2016, we have embarked on a journey of rolling out in-flight and on-ground innovations, opened new routes, increased connectivity across PAL’s route network, added new aircraft to our fleet and importantly, invested in the Buong Pusong Alaga ( whole-hearted) training of all our cabin crew, ground crew and service providers domestically and internationally in order to enhance the passenger travel experience and earn a higher Skytrax rating,”

With the 4-Star rating now certified, PAL aims to intensify efforts as it continues unveiling new products and expanding routes, including the launch of nonstop services to New York and Brisbane as well as flights to India and additional routes to Japan and China within 2018.

“By offering the public a globally competitive airline service, we are empowered to attract more tourists to visit the Philippines, experience our country’s beauty and our people’s warmth, and to generate more economic activity for the Philippines,” said Bautista.

Skytrax completed the quality audit evaluation of Philippine Airlines last year, examining in detail all product and service delivery areas across the customer trip experience.

SKYTRAX is the leading international Airline Rating system introduced in 1999 that classifies airlines by the Quality of front-line product and staff service standards. Airline Star Ratings are recognised as a global Benchmark of airline standards.

18 comments:

  1. oh my! oh my!...congratulation PAL

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  2. Congrats to them. Reaching 4 stars was an easy task for them and was easily anticipated. But the real challenge is reaching 5 stars. But a lot of aviation analysts and PaxEx experts have commented that Skytrax has already lost its credibility, further exasperated when it awarded 5 stars to Lufthansa, and was heavily criticized. It seems that SkyTrax has toned down their criteria and is now more considering. Garuda, EVA and Etihad deserve theirs, but Lufthansa I don't think so. Looks like El Capitan can now sell his stake to a foreign airline. With the recent award, PAL will be more attractive to investors.

    Airport infrastructure and ground experience are still a challenge for PAL and other airlines. The Duterte administration doesn't seem to be interested in building a new airport and favors upgrading NAIA instead. The super-consortium of Lucio Tan, Gokongwei, Andrew Tan, MVP, Ayala, etc. and its competitor SSS-Megawide of upgrading NAIA will most likely be interim, and it's clear Manila needs a new airport. The proposed T2 Annex still faces legal challenges as the land it will occupy belongs to a Marcos crony. But a new terminal, new lounges, new ground experience will greatly improve PAL PaxEx, but punctuality and on-time performance is still a problem for NAIA. JICA's recommendation of a new airport in Sangley Point seems to have lost interest, and San Miguel's proposal of a new airport in Bulakan, Bulacan is attractive yet still requires further financial details. Clark will be out of the equation because it's too far away from Metro Manila and the new terminal being built is only a low-cost carrier terminal. And CRK will most likely only serve Central Luzon especially the future New Clark City in the long term.

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    1. Maybe we can let NAIA, Sangley/Bulacan, and Clark co-exist and follow the path of London (multiple airports) or Los Angeles (one main airport and several reliever airports). Sangley/Bulacan could be the new international hub, NAIA could be kept for domestic and business flights, and Clark could be developed to serve as an LCC hub ala Stansted or developed into a hub for Central and Northern Luzon. They could even consider partially renovating Fernando AB and opening it to civilian flights, making it an alternate gateway for Southern Tagalog. Win-win for everyone I guess: NAIA could remain, but we get new airports too.

      I don't think NAIA should be totally closed down (there remains a niche for an airport close to the commercial centers), but I guess we need one or more new airports to handle most flights, while we could keep NAIA as a secondary hub.

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    2. also. it doesnt make sense. PAL is currently building a new lounge at T2 designed by Grit Design Studio. why not open a new lounge at the future T2 annex instead?

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    3. because they aim to reach 5-star status by 2020 and the new T2 annex is still in the drawing boards. And the worst part is, it not yet even approved nor formally presented to the government. It will take years for it to become a reality.

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    4. ^oh yes. makes sense. just like what Qatar Airways did when they constructed their 'premium terminal' in the old Doha airport, which earned them 5-stars, even though the terminal itself was a dump and passengers had to be transported to the tarmac by bus.

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  3. Personally I don't put a lot of whait on skytrax every since they gave LH 5 stars last year. But nonethless I hope PAL will contiune to imporved thier hard product like retrofit thier 7 bi-class A330s and 6 B777s which espicially need a product updated since angle-lie flat seats is no longer considered competative this days. EK still has it but they can easily getway with it thanks to thier marketing PR.

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    1. Correction "weight" not whait oops my bad.

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    2. Well perhaps you can help also..putting weight on it by sending them a copy of your e-ticket so that you can be like one of those hundreds of VERIFIED Philippine Airlines passengers by skytrax that have noticed the big improvements and appreciated what PAL has given them during there flight experienced and i am one of them how i wish our own EL AL Airline will follow achieved the 4 star rating also. Shalom and Mabuhay Philippine Airlines.

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    3. I personally think El Al deserves a 4-star remark too. All of their long-haul aircraft have IFE, even though on the 747 and 777 theyre obsolete. The new 787s are gorgeous and modern too.

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    4. El Al attendants are snubbish base on my observation obviously they dont like foreigners or non jews..me? a filipino ofw in israel who flew with el al 4x

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    5. @Anonymous#1 Though some of EL AL boeing jets are obsolete yet all of its entire fleet are equipped with Flight Guard or the Anti Missile System and this is also supposed Skytrax give credit to EL AL but in the contrary @Anonymous #2 being a filipino migrant worker in Israel and working as a live in caregiver (metapel/metapelet)we israelis have deep respect in you by way of how you taking care of our sabas and savtas and the handicapped too..you said you flew EL AL 4x but yet you are complaining with regards how EL AL flight attendants treated you.are you sure?? because if i am in your shoes i will never fly any airlines treating me that way..there's a lot of International airlines flying out at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv.

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    6. i am forcing myself flying with EL AL becausei hate multiple connections and lay over.

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  4. That's really great. However, how were they able to accomplish it? I mean, most of their planes don't have personal TV screens, especially the ones going to the Middle East. Or perhaps Skytrax has different standards?

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    1. all their airbus 330 newly installed with ptv and business class seats.

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    2. Not all A330 are fitted with new seat and have ptv. However occasionally they do deploy their tri-class A330 in the middle east either as last minute aircraft changed or to experiment IMO I do believed the PAL will retrofitted thier 7 A330s sooner then later.

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  5. Will the transfer of all Philippine Airlines' international flights to NAIA Terminal 1 affects the 4-star status of Philippine Airlines, and will be downgraded instead of upgrading into 5-star? Why shouldn't NAIA put all international flights of Philippine Airlines to Terminal 3, and then Cebu Pacific's international flights would be on Terminal 1?

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