18 February 2022
Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) will refit seat configuration of 15 of its aircraft covering its Airbus fleet.
The cabin modification will cover 11 A320s, two A330-300s and two A350-900s to be performed by Airbus.
PAL decided to ditch its business class in its A320 as Airbus restores 24 more seats to bring the total seat count to 180 all economy seat, a configuration that suits the airline’s requirements for short-haul inter-island domestic routes.
The airline is expected to return domestic services to Bacolod, Iloilo, Tagbilaran, Tacloban, Puerto Princesa, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga, where PAL Express is the previous operator. The rest of the domestic route will be service by PAL Express.
Meanwhile, PAL will refit two of its Airbus A330-300s to accommodate additional 50 seats that will bring the total seat count to 359.
PAL said they need this density for the middle east, as the airline return some of its high density A330s to lessors due to fleet rationalization plan effected in the Bankruptcy proceedings in New York. The airline said these refitted aircraft will also be used for Cebu, Davao, and General Santos flights, as well as to Korea and China.
For the long haul, PAL also decided to ditch some of its premium economy class seats in favor 18 more economy seats for a total of 313 seats.
According to PAL, they will only reduce the business class and still preserves the roomy cabin layout and passenger-friendly experience that PAL Business Class and Economy Class travelers enjoy on the A350’s long-haul routes to London, Toronto and New York.
In another news, PAL is extending its
‘Flight Hour Services’ (FHS) material programme with Airbus to cover
more of its fleet from 2 to 39, with guaranteed parts availability to secure the
operational reliability and efficiency of PAL’s widebody and narrowbody
aircraft.
The FHS programme, which currently covers two A350s,
now includes 37 more aircraft, comprising 29 A321 Family (including
eight A321neos) and eight A330ceos.
Airbus will provide
components standard exchange, components repairs, component reliability
and engineering services, as well as on-site stock at PAL’s main base in
Manila. The FHS will be performed by Lufthansa Tecknik Philippines.
Looks like PAL is ditching the Premium Economy on A350 and A330. I suppose that just makes sense and hopefully will do get to fill their planes again as the world slowly opens up.
ReplyDeleteAs for the A320s totally losing its Business Class seats...for domestic routes....yeah, we don't need it...but they do use it for international routes, it's a pity to lose that in those destinations.
The A320s are going to PAL Express anyway, so it is the most logical thing to do. Besides, with the A320s gone, they will replace it with the deferred A321NX.
DeleteI wonder if they will change the economy seating on the A330 to nine-abreast like the high density configuration
ReplyDeleteAccording to the wikipedia page, the layout is 359 all economy seats for 2 of PALs A330 so maybe it will retain its 8 abreast layout. Well, if the one who edited PALs wikipedia page is from PAL, we can see a 359 seater all economy A330 in the following months.
DeleteDo you have the breakdown of the planes that will be returned to lessors? The 4 A350 are gone, how about the rest?
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have read, they're retaining 1-2-1 business class as a retention to roomy cabin layout for 2 A359s. They're using it for the thinnest and longest routes of PAL (LHR, YYZ and JFK).
ReplyDelete