Transition pains

Philippine Daily Inquirer
October 3, 2011

Philippine Airlines was finally able to implement its long-awaited—but hotly contested—spin off/outsourcing program during the weekend. Surprisingly, it was an uneventful transition as the clock struck midnight of October 1. Earlier, the much-touted “massive rally” by some 300 PAL workers, according to some TV accounts, voluntarily dispersed with no untoward incident.

As of Saturday, airport sources told Biz Buzz that the flag carrier was still reeling from “transition pains” as it operated only about 70 percent, or two-thirds, of its original flight frequencies. The crux of the matter seems to be the lingering manpower shortage of some service providers, which were under orders from the labor department and Malacañang to absorb every single PAL employee to be laid off by the airline company. Trouble is, only few of these retired workers were interested in joining the third-party ground handling and catering companies picked by PAL to do the job. Fortunately, SPi Global, the PLDT-owned call center, didn’t share the same problem as it had enough personnel to handle the airline’s call center reservations function.

Expect PAL operations to slowly return to normal in about a month as the service providers now have a free hand to recruit skilled workers outside the pool of PAL’s retired personnel. In the meantime, it looks like it’s all-systems go for a leaner PAL, which has become a more attractive target for potential buyers/investors. Abangan!—Daxim L. Lucas