El Al Israel To Fly Manila Soon

29 September 2016

Flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has signed code sharing agreement with El Al Israel Airlines towards the latter's eventual flight to the country expected to commence with thrice weekly services between Manila and Tel Aviv starting next year using Boeing 777-200ER planes.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed by President and Chief Operating Officer Jaime Bautista and David Maimon on Tuesday, Sept. 20.

The MOU would first be applied between El Al flight from Tel Aviv to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to Manila via Philippine Airlines and vice versa.

Mr. Bautista said that with a growing travel market, PAL is happy to be part of a cooperation agreement with EL AL.

“The tourism programs that are being developed by the Philippines and Israel will certainly contribute to more traffic between the two countries”, Bautista added.

“The MOU is a way to look forward to the long-term plans of extending deeper cooperation between PAL and EL AL and to explore what the two flag carriers can do together to bring more tourists from the Philippines to Israel and vice versa,” Maimon said.

The partnership agreement is expected to boost tourism in both countries as Israel is the third largest tourism market of the Philippines in the Middle East. There is also no connecting traffic in the gulf region to the Philippines other than through Turkey which the airline intends to remedy.

Ambassador Neal Imperial, who witnessed the signing, hailed the MOU as an important step in bringing Filipinos and Israelis closer through better air links. He said the cooperation between the two premier flag carriers will sustain the boom in tourism between the two countries after the signing of a new air services agreement in 2014.

The Philippines and Israel expanded bilateral air talks in 2014 resulting in 21 weekly flights to any point between the two countries, a government official has said.

According to CAB executive director Carmelo Arcilla, the new air agreement replaced the previous air service deal sealed in 1951.

Philippine Airlines applied to operate 14 weekly flights from Manila to Tel Aviv in 2014. The airline last flew to Israel in the 1950s and 1960s via Thailand and India, Arcilla said.

In 2015, tourist arrivals from Israel grew by 34 % and approximately 36% in the first half of 2016 equivalent to 9,294 Israelis. There are however 553,002  Filipinos that went to Israel in December 2015 alone.

Latest statistics indicate that Filipino arrivals in Israel increased to 459,138 in June 2016 from 445,449 in May of 2016. Tourist Arrivals coming from the Philippines averaged 227,144.57 from 1991 until 2016.

The Next US Destination

29 September 2016

Southeast Asia-US top 20 city pairs 

Based on % of total Southeast Asia-US bookings: 

Year ending 30-Jun-2016

As compiled by CAPA.

Foreign Tourist Arrivals

29 September 2016

Midyear Statistical Report

January-June 2016

A look from where airline passengers are coming from and where airline goes next 

CEB Introduces High Capacity ATR

24 September 2016

Budget carrier Cebu Pacific took delivery Thursday its first high density ATR72-600 of the 16 frames the airline ordered at the Paris Airshow in 2015.

According to ATR, the new turboprop aircraft can seat 10 more passengers from the existing -500 that accommodate 68 seats.

Cebu Pacific will gradually replace its current fleet of eight 72-500 (72 seats configuration) by sixteen new 72-600 78 seats until 2020. 

Delivery contract includes ten options for additional aircraft, and all will be operated by Cebgo, its wholly owned subsidiary (ex Seair and Tiger Philippines) for domestic operations.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has certified in December 2015 the 78 seats configuration of the ATR 72 based on existing cabin platform.

ATR has added a row of four seats in optimizing space between rows and replacing the standard galley by a collapsible galley at the rear of the unit

Why Seattle?

It's Where Traffic is Bigger than Chicago

18 September 2016

NAIA Tender Does Not Mean Delay of New Airport

16 September 2016

The Philippine government through the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chaired by President Rodrigo R. Duterte has approved the US$1.6 billion Ninoy Aquino International Airport Modernization Project to be funded through Public-Private Partnership (PPP Project) Thursday.

The PPP project is the DOTr’s medium-term solution to decongest the country's main international gateway which is estimated to be achievable in 3 years time while waiting for the $10b Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan from Japan to build a new offshore airport in Cavite.

The contract is valued at P74.6 billion and shall cover airside and landside developments ranging from Terminal 2 and 3 expansions, construction of new taxiways, aprons, and passenger interconnecting walkway between the four terminals .

The airport terminal upgrade aims to improve passenger convenience, safety and security, while maximizing runway capacity through “refreshed” airside developments with help from modern technology.

The build, operate, management and maintenance contract has a concession period of 15-20 years, including infrastructure designs and construction period.

DOTr said the concession period would be enough time until the new mega airport finish construction on similar time frame. Meanwhile, excess traffic will be channeled to Clark International Airport and Sangley Airport to address domestic and international traffic overflow.

The DOTr expects to begin PPP procurement immediately following approval, and to award and sign a concession agreement by September 2017.

The airport is expected to serve 60 million in the next 15 years. Currently, it handles 36 million passengers from a terminal designed capacity of only 31.5 million.

Common Sense

Discipline Key For Air Traffic Relief

15 September 2016

Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) management has finally broke grounds in bringing relief to air traffic congestion after it ban general aviation traffic from using NAIA from 12 noon to 7:00pm, an act the previous administration deemed incapable of implementing.

MIAA General Manager Eddie Monreal disclosed that they made adjustments and evaluations and implemented the study that were long pending in their office unenforced for unknown reason.

The study centered on general aviation which was long considered by the CAAP as causing traffic bottleneck at the airport.

Monreal said a compromise was had with the previous administration allowing them 2 movements per hour, but this has now been revoked for time between 12:01pm and 7:00pm.

Slot allocations
Another unresolved problem found and solved was "unslotted" aircraft using the runway.

"Meaning, they were not in the listed slot for the day, and even if they were, they were not taking off and landing at their designated time", says Monreal.

"We restricted that" adds Monreal, saying further that airlines failure to follow their allocated slot, and "airlines without slot allocation or an approve one will not be permitted to take off or land. They will not also be provided with check-in counters at the airports terminal."

MIAA said the order issued in July 2016 was supposed to be effective in August but due to airlines request a compromise was made having it effective on September 1.

On this account, PAL announced cancellations of 29 local flights operating out of Manila  effective Sept. 1, 2016 for non slot. Those cancelled flights covered routes from Manila to Caticlan, Cebu, Calbayog, Kalibo, Laoag, Legaspi, Tablas, and Tuguegarao.

Results were immediately apparent as airlines dramatically improved its On-Time Performance at the airport to as high as 80 percent.

5 Minute Rule
Airlines were likewise directed to follow strictly flight schedules to the effect that if airline misses its schedule, it loses its place in the line. No one is allowed to crash the line.

Monreal said that airlines in the past call clearance for take-off even if their aircraft is not ready.

"We call it the five minute rule" says Montreal.

Monreal explained that should the airline be not ready for push back in five minutes it loses its place in the line and they will be penalize to cue at the back of the line.

Senator Franklin Drilon retorts if it was due to discipline to which Monreal answered in the affirmative.

Secretary Art Tugade would like to call it the "common sense" approach.

Low cost carrier Cebu Pacific was particularly cited for breaches of this regulation, according to tower sources, due to its short turnaround policy of its aircraft in the ground that their pilot already acquired bad habits of reporting "ready" for push back when in reality they are not.

CAAP Confirms Cypress Blocks Approach

One Cause For Aircraft Delays



15 September 2015

After years of silence, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) finally admitted Wednesday that Cypress Towers owned by DMCI along C-5 in Taguig City is blocking the path of incoming aircraft to NAIA and that their Office has approved its construction during the Administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo even if they were restricted airspace.

Manuel Tamayo, Deputy Director general for Administration of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) confirmed during the Senate hearing that the original 300-feet minimum descent altitude (MDA) for landing aircraft was forced to be adjusted to 900 feet because of Cypress Towers obstruction on its flight path.

"This was done several years ago. They had to adjust the minimum descent height for the non-position approach specifically because of this tower," Tamayo said. He was however mum when asked who from CAA approved the building permit.

The 500 feet increase in altitude prevented aircraft from seeing the runway on visuals during bad weather causing multiple go arounds and traffic build up in the air which usually ended up in flight diversions to Clark.

Tamayo however allayed fears of unsafe approach in runway 24 as he explained NAIA's use of 3 modes of approaches for landing aircraft – visual, non-precision, and precision such as the use of the "more efficient" instrument landing system (ILS).

Tamayo said that while DMCI condo has affected the currently applied approach, this is already a non-issue as they already increased height limits.

But Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito, a licensed pilot himself countered Tamayo saying that the ILS minimum decision altitude was likewise increase to 375 feet making approach more steep than what was considered generally a safe approach to runway defined by international standards.

CAAP admitted that its very difficult to land at runway 24 during bad weather because pilots uses non-precision approach to Manila forcing them to hover at least a thousand feet in the air because the ILS that was made by Thales was hit by lightning in August 2015. Air traffic could have been managed smoothly had the ILS been working as it lowers minimum ceiling to 375 feet enough for the pilot to see the runway.

MIAA has already ordered spare parts since last year but the supplier delayed its delivery twice and the government cannot do anything about it because of apparent incompatibility with other OEM suppliers.

DMCI was also the builder of a controversial tower in Manila that intruded the natural view of Rizal monument in Luneta. Cypress Towers was completed in 2009.