Flight Ends September 19
25 June 2018
25 June 2018
Philippine Airlines (PAL) has announced that it will suspend flights to and from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia beginning Sept. 19 this year due to poor passenger sales, declares PAL Spokesperson.
“All routes are subjected to performance reviews and viability. It is deemed necessary to suspend said route in view of the assessment made. ” PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said.
The airline said it cannot sustain 10 hours of flight services to Jeddah with low passenger count more so with rising fuel prices.
PAL did not disclosed how low their load factor to Jeddah is but data from OAG suggest carriage of around 60% on average which is truly not enough to make the route profitable.
Villaluna said the airline has been making adjustments to make this route viable but reducing further the frequency to twice weekly would not be commercially sustainable.
PAL seeks the understanding of passengers affected by the suspension of the Manila-Jeddah route as they will be endorsed to Saudia Airlines which also fly the route on Boeing 777-300ER plane.
The airline earlier stopped flying Manila to Kuwait on May 16 due to diplomatic spat between the two countries causing the temporary ban of deployment of overseas filipino workers which adversely affected ticket sales to the region.
“All routes are subjected to performance reviews and viability. It is deemed necessary to suspend said route in view of the assessment made. ” PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said.
The airline said it cannot sustain 10 hours of flight services to Jeddah with low passenger count more so with rising fuel prices.
PAL did not disclosed how low their load factor to Jeddah is but data from OAG suggest carriage of around 60% on average which is truly not enough to make the route profitable.
Villaluna said the airline has been making adjustments to make this route viable but reducing further the frequency to twice weekly would not be commercially sustainable.
PAL seeks the understanding of passengers affected by the suspension of the Manila-Jeddah route as they will be endorsed to Saudia Airlines which also fly the route on Boeing 777-300ER plane.
The airline earlier stopped flying Manila to Kuwait on May 16 due to diplomatic spat between the two countries causing the temporary ban of deployment of overseas filipino workers which adversely affected ticket sales to the region.
Middle East is a tough market for both PAL and CebPac, especially with the overcapacity and the dominance of the ME3. Better for them to focus on their more profitable routes.
ReplyDeleteHope they will not suspend DMM and RUH
DeleteI'm not sure if this is related but looks liked PAL is increasing its frequency to Melbourne from 5 times weekly to 7 times weekly still operated an A330. I wonder if they will soon refurbished there 7 Bi-class A330 to a Tri-class configuration soon ?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.routesonline.com/news/38/airlineroute/279260/philippine-airlines-increases-melbourne-flights-from-late-oct-2018/
I hope they will refurbish the 7 bi-class A330 soon, remember they got this from the poor planers of SMC who tried to make PAL like 5J. Maybe they should advance the refurbishing; PAL has a real winner in the tri-class A330
DeleteActually, the remaining 7 is on tri-class configuration @ 363 pax. The only problem on why people see this as bi-class is the fact that it's premium economy seats is almost identical to the economy seats and can't be distinguished as a real premium economy unlike those offered in their new A330 tri-class.
DeleteSo if they will refurbish the remaining aircrafts, it must be identical to the tri-class layout of PAL's A330 @ 309 pax or copy the layout of their A350-900 tri-class layout @ 295 pax since the A330 and the A350 is roughly the same size.