PAL flight bookings up despite labor problems

Friday, 10 December 2010 00:00
The Manila Times

PHILIPPINE Airlines (PAL) on Thursday said its flight bookings rose by a tenth for the coming holidays despite the labor woes hounding the flag carrier.

In a statement, the Lucio Tan-owned airline said the higher bookings this month is an indication of a strong passenger confidence in PAL’s continued operations.

Cielo Villaluna, PAL spokesperson, said its sales department noted a significant uptick in confirmed bookings especially after
Malacañang, through Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., made a public appeal to the PAL Employees Association (Palea) to defer any work stoppage as the Palace exhausts all means to resolve the labor tiff.

PAL workers’ union earlier held a strike vote, but the airline management questioned its legal basis.

PALEA is protesting PAL’s plan to spin off part of its operations, a move that will result in letting go some 3,500 of its 7,500 workforce.

Villaluna said close to 90 percent of PAL’s booked passengers have been issued confirmed tickets for Manila-inbound flights, indicative of the travelers’ trust in the airline’s ability to fly them to their respective destinations.

“Many of our inbound passengers finalized their travel plans after Malacañang’s appeal to Palea. Most of them are hopeful that through Malacañang’s intercession and Palea’s cooperation—‘in the spirit of Christmas’—they would be able to spend the holidays with their loved ones,” he said.

Based on sales data, almost all flights coming from the United States are full —registering the highest number of forward bookings—followed by those coming from Australia.

PAL’s traditionally packed flights every December are those coming from North America, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore. Between Christmas and New Year, its airplanes are filled with vacationers bound for Kalibo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore and China.

Last year, PAL carried 9.2 million passengers or an average of 25,630 passengers per day. This number goes up by as much as 30 percent with the Christmas peak season as thousands of tourists, balikbayans and overseas Filipino workers flock home to spend Christmas with their families.

“While the strike vote threatens to spoil the holiday travel plans of thousands of Filipinos, PAL is exerting all efforts to ensure continued safe and reliable service,” Villaluna said.

She said the strike vote did not cause any flight cancellations, adding that no significant withdrawal of passenger bookings have been noted.

“We would like [to] reiterate our advise [to] our passengers to please come to the airport early—at least two hours before the intended departure time—to avoid long queues and other inconveniences that usually occur during this time of the year,” Villaluna said.

Darwin G. Amojelar