abs-cbnNEWS.com | 05/25/2009 7:50 PM
Despite an environment of rising costs as caused by the global crisis, Philippine Airlines (PAL) said it will push through with its expansion plans this year.
According to PAL Vice President for marketing Felix Cruz, the country's flagship carrier has job openings for reservation, ground crew, and flight staff as it prepares for the delivery of new planes.
"We expect delivery of five Boeing 777-300ERs, which will be deployed for US flights," he said at the Trabaho sa Turismo job fair in Pasay City over the weekend.
He added that PAL remains optimistic about its expansion despite the economic downturn and the influenza A (H1N1) scare, which has grounded many flights of many international carriers.
PAL is awaiting the lifting of the Category 2 rating imposed by the United States Federal Aviation Administration on the Philippine civil aviation system, which prevented PAL from expanding services to the US.
In the second half of 2008, the airline managed to increase its flights to its US West Coast gateways of Los Angeles and San Francisco, adding up to 1,320 seats weekly on PAL's trans-Pacific routes.
Passenger demand
In the said fair during the weekend, Tourism Secretary Ace Durano said tourist traffic in the country's top 15 destinations rose 10.3 percent in the first three months of the year.
This is in contrast with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which earlier reported an 11.1-percent drop in air passenger demand in March even as airlines cut international passenger capacity by 4.4 percent.
IATA Director General Giovanni Bisigniani said the Asia-Pacific region is particularly hit by the slump in international air travel, with a 14.5-percent drop in passenger demand.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
PAL inks marketing deal with Travelport
Business Mirror
May 25, 2009
Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Travelport, one of the world’s largest travel conglomerates, signed a three-year global-marketing agreement that enables Galileo, Apollo and Worldspan connected travel agents to access automated market fares and take advantage of additional functionality until the end of 2011.
The Travelport deal includes two strategic solutions for PAL’s customers with the implementation of Octopus Travel hotel content on the PAL website and the use of Travelport Rapid Reprice, an automated ticket-repricing product.
Octopus Travel, Travelport’s innovative online travel company, provides hotel content on PAL’s web site (http://www.philippineairlines.com/hotels), giving customers’ access to more than 21,000 hotels in 129 countries. The expanded hotel offering provides customers with a wide mix of lodgings at affordable prices ranging from one to five star hotels, international chains to small boutique hotels. Customers can also compare prices, view hotel locations and evaluate hotel amenities.
PAL also becomes the first Asian carrier to implement Travelport Rapid Reprice, which enables PAL to recalculate a ticket reflecting the appropriate taxes, additional collections, refunds, penalties or administrative fees. The automated product minimizes revenue leakage from miscalculated collections and fees that remain inherent in a manual repricing process.
It also virtually eliminates debit memos due to superior data integrity and repricing accuracy. The solution facilitates repricing of tickets irrespective of the booking system that the ticket was issued on.
“We are glad to work with Travelport in offering new cutting-edge, automated services to our customers. It enhances the features of our website through Octopus Travel as well as the convenience of an automated re-pricing tool and refund for our sales offices through Rapid Reprice,” said Enrique Javier, PAL for sales.
“This partnership with Travelport gives our customers a wider choice of hotels while browsing PAL’s web site [Octopus trave], over and above the accommodations included in PAL’s tour packages [PALakbayan and Swingaround],” he added.
Brad Holman, President and managing director of Travelport GDS-Asia Pacific said, “We are celebrating three ‘firsts’ in the Philippines today. This signing represents the first marketing agreement between PAL and Travelport. It also marks Rapid Reprice’s first airline customer in Asia, as well as PAL’s expanded hotel choice for customers with its tie-up with Octopus Travel.”
“Travelport works closely with our airline partners to provide them with products that help them stay ahead of the competition, improve the overall customer experience, grow revenue while also keeping costs as pared down as possible. Airline ticket reissue headaches can be a thing of the past with Rapid Reprice. The product dramatically reduces the number of key strokes involved in repricing a ticket from around 500 strokes to less than 10, thus improving the airline’s productivity, efficiency and accuracy,” Holman added.
Travelport’s Rapid Reprice™ is used by airlines to automate the complex, time-consuming itinerary repricing function. Rapid Reprice automatically integrates fare and rule categories from SITA and Airline Tariff Publishing Co. (ATPCO) including voluntary changes, net fares, private fares and fare-by-rule.
Travelport Rapid Reprice has been delivering financial rewards to some of the world’s largest carriers including United Airlines, Delta and Emirates. The product was first launched in 1999 via the Worldspan GDS platform and more than 27 million transactions were processed using Travelport Rapid Reprice last year.
More than 100 million fully automated transactions have been processed since launch, demonstrating the product’s unique functionality and scalability.
May 25, 2009
Philippine Airlines (PAL) and Travelport, one of the world’s largest travel conglomerates, signed a three-year global-marketing agreement that enables Galileo, Apollo and Worldspan connected travel agents to access automated market fares and take advantage of additional functionality until the end of 2011.
The Travelport deal includes two strategic solutions for PAL’s customers with the implementation of Octopus Travel hotel content on the PAL website and the use of Travelport Rapid Reprice, an automated ticket-repricing product.
Octopus Travel, Travelport’s innovative online travel company, provides hotel content on PAL’s web site (http://www.philippineairlines.com/hotels), giving customers’ access to more than 21,000 hotels in 129 countries. The expanded hotel offering provides customers with a wide mix of lodgings at affordable prices ranging from one to five star hotels, international chains to small boutique hotels. Customers can also compare prices, view hotel locations and evaluate hotel amenities.
PAL also becomes the first Asian carrier to implement Travelport Rapid Reprice, which enables PAL to recalculate a ticket reflecting the appropriate taxes, additional collections, refunds, penalties or administrative fees. The automated product minimizes revenue leakage from miscalculated collections and fees that remain inherent in a manual repricing process.
It also virtually eliminates debit memos due to superior data integrity and repricing accuracy. The solution facilitates repricing of tickets irrespective of the booking system that the ticket was issued on.
“We are glad to work with Travelport in offering new cutting-edge, automated services to our customers. It enhances the features of our website through Octopus Travel as well as the convenience of an automated re-pricing tool and refund for our sales offices through Rapid Reprice,” said Enrique Javier, PAL for sales.
“This partnership with Travelport gives our customers a wider choice of hotels while browsing PAL’s web site [Octopus trave], over and above the accommodations included in PAL’s tour packages [PALakbayan and Swingaround],” he added.
Brad Holman, President and managing director of Travelport GDS-Asia Pacific said, “We are celebrating three ‘firsts’ in the Philippines today. This signing represents the first marketing agreement between PAL and Travelport. It also marks Rapid Reprice’s first airline customer in Asia, as well as PAL’s expanded hotel choice for customers with its tie-up with Octopus Travel.”
“Travelport works closely with our airline partners to provide them with products that help them stay ahead of the competition, improve the overall customer experience, grow revenue while also keeping costs as pared down as possible. Airline ticket reissue headaches can be a thing of the past with Rapid Reprice. The product dramatically reduces the number of key strokes involved in repricing a ticket from around 500 strokes to less than 10, thus improving the airline’s productivity, efficiency and accuracy,” Holman added.
Travelport’s Rapid Reprice™ is used by airlines to automate the complex, time-consuming itinerary repricing function. Rapid Reprice automatically integrates fare and rule categories from SITA and Airline Tariff Publishing Co. (ATPCO) including voluntary changes, net fares, private fares and fare-by-rule.
Travelport Rapid Reprice has been delivering financial rewards to some of the world’s largest carriers including United Airlines, Delta and Emirates. The product was first launched in 1999 via the Worldspan GDS platform and more than 27 million transactions were processed using Travelport Rapid Reprice last year.
More than 100 million fully automated transactions have been processed since launch, demonstrating the product’s unique functionality and scalability.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
PAL refurbishes B747 with world-class amenities
Philippine Star
Updated May 17, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Airlines (PAL) recently rolled out its second reconfigured Boeing 747-400 that features brand new and luxurious cabin amenities rivaling some of the world’s best airlines.
The upgrading is part of PAL’s US$50-million aircraft refurbishment program. It started last year after the airline management decided to reconfigure its long-haul aircraft to bi-class – taking out the First Class section – in keeping with the trend of major airlines worldwide.
The latest PAL B747-400 to undergo a facelift completed its three-month refurbishment on April 9, 2009 at PAL’s maintenance service provider in Taipei. New business and economy class seats, state-of-the-art inflight entertainment system and a new cabin design were installed in the aircraft.
The new cabin amenities and interior look can be viewed even without boarding the aircraft by taking the B747 cabin virtual tour at PAL’s website (philippineairlines.com) where an interactive 360 degree view of Mabuhay (lower and upper deck) and economy class can be accessed. The virtual tour is available on the website starting May 18.
Renowned aircraft seat manufacturer Recaro of Germany supplied the 391 seats (56 in Mabuhay and 335 in fiesta), offering generous seat pitch (60 inches in Mabuhay and 32 to 34 inches in economy). Luxurious Mabuhay seats are ergonomically designed and can be transformed into a lie-flat bed complete with a cocoon-type privacy shell.
Each seat has audio/video on-demand capability, including a personal TV (10 to 15-inch monitors for Mabuhay and nine-inch monitors for economy). The state-of-the-art inflight entertainment system allows passengers to choose from a library of video and audio content, including 18 movies, 8 TV programs, 12 radio channels and 50 CD albums. Digital games are also available for young passengers while in-seat power for laptops is provided in Mabuhay class.
Passengers are also welcomed by the cabin’s new look and feel – coastal-themed interiors characterized by palm-tree landscape design at the fore and aft sections of the aircraft, deep-blue seat upholstery with silvery-copper threads in Mabuhay class and undulating wave-pattern of blue, aqua and terracotta palette in Economy. To complete the airy, spacious feel, curtains, carpet and surfaces are in shades of blue, white, gray, silver and tan.
The refurbishment/reconfiguration of the B747s is capped by a new type of Mabuhay Class meal service called “One-by-One” – a la carte service where passengers select their own meal from a variety of choices. Each dish is individually plated, giving each meal a tailored touch, in the tradition of fine-dining restaurants. On-demand service means passengers can take their meals anytime during the flight.
Refurbishment of the first PAL B747-400 was completed in October 2008, signaling the start of a $50-million refurbishment program of PAL’s flagship aircraft. RP-C7471 was also equipped with the same world-class amenities.
Updated May 17, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Airlines (PAL) recently rolled out its second reconfigured Boeing 747-400 that features brand new and luxurious cabin amenities rivaling some of the world’s best airlines.
The upgrading is part of PAL’s US$50-million aircraft refurbishment program. It started last year after the airline management decided to reconfigure its long-haul aircraft to bi-class – taking out the First Class section – in keeping with the trend of major airlines worldwide.
The latest PAL B747-400 to undergo a facelift completed its three-month refurbishment on April 9, 2009 at PAL’s maintenance service provider in Taipei. New business and economy class seats, state-of-the-art inflight entertainment system and a new cabin design were installed in the aircraft.
The new cabin amenities and interior look can be viewed even without boarding the aircraft by taking the B747 cabin virtual tour at PAL’s website (philippineairlines.com) where an interactive 360 degree view of Mabuhay (lower and upper deck) and economy class can be accessed. The virtual tour is available on the website starting May 18.
Renowned aircraft seat manufacturer Recaro of Germany supplied the 391 seats (56 in Mabuhay and 335 in fiesta), offering generous seat pitch (60 inches in Mabuhay and 32 to 34 inches in economy). Luxurious Mabuhay seats are ergonomically designed and can be transformed into a lie-flat bed complete with a cocoon-type privacy shell.
Each seat has audio/video on-demand capability, including a personal TV (10 to 15-inch monitors for Mabuhay and nine-inch monitors for economy). The state-of-the-art inflight entertainment system allows passengers to choose from a library of video and audio content, including 18 movies, 8 TV programs, 12 radio channels and 50 CD albums. Digital games are also available for young passengers while in-seat power for laptops is provided in Mabuhay class.
Passengers are also welcomed by the cabin’s new look and feel – coastal-themed interiors characterized by palm-tree landscape design at the fore and aft sections of the aircraft, deep-blue seat upholstery with silvery-copper threads in Mabuhay class and undulating wave-pattern of blue, aqua and terracotta palette in Economy. To complete the airy, spacious feel, curtains, carpet and surfaces are in shades of blue, white, gray, silver and tan.
The refurbishment/reconfiguration of the B747s is capped by a new type of Mabuhay Class meal service called “One-by-One” – a la carte service where passengers select their own meal from a variety of choices. Each dish is individually plated, giving each meal a tailored touch, in the tradition of fine-dining restaurants. On-demand service means passengers can take their meals anytime during the flight.
Refurbishment of the first PAL B747-400 was completed in October 2008, signaling the start of a $50-million refurbishment program of PAL’s flagship aircraft. RP-C7471 was also equipped with the same world-class amenities.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Holdings firm set to prepay PAL notes, debt
Philippine Daily Inquirer
By Riza T. Olchondra
May 14, 2009
MANILA, Philippines—Philippine Airlines unsecured zero coupon notes and bilateral loans due in 2011 are set to be prepaid through the controlling shareholder of its parent company, PAL Holdings Inc.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PAL Holdings said its controlling shareholder, Trustmark Holdings Corp., “proposes to buy a combination of notes and other [debts] up to an aggregate principal amount of $143 million, at its sole discretion.”
The buyback will be undertaken through a so-called Dutch auction, or an open descending price auction.
The aggregate principal amount of notes and loans combined is about $220 million.
The early tender is set on May 19. Those who will tender their notes by this time will receive their purchase price plus an early tender premium.
The offer expires on May 22 at 4 p.m. (GMT). The transaction is expected to be settled on May 29, PAL Holdings said.
JP Morgan Securities Ltd. is the sole dealer and manager of this transaction.
As part of the transaction, Trustmark will become the beneficial owner of the purchased notes and other debts.
PAL Holdings said that Trustmark would use the proceeds for future equity subscriptions.
Trustmark is controlled by PAL chair Lucio Tan.
It is the primary shareholder of PAL Holdings Inc. which, in turn, owns 84 percent of the issued share capital of the flag carrier.
By Riza T. Olchondra
May 14, 2009
MANILA, Philippines—Philippine Airlines unsecured zero coupon notes and bilateral loans due in 2011 are set to be prepaid through the controlling shareholder of its parent company, PAL Holdings Inc.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, PAL Holdings said its controlling shareholder, Trustmark Holdings Corp., “proposes to buy a combination of notes and other [debts] up to an aggregate principal amount of $143 million, at its sole discretion.”
The buyback will be undertaken through a so-called Dutch auction, or an open descending price auction.
The aggregate principal amount of notes and loans combined is about $220 million.
The early tender is set on May 19. Those who will tender their notes by this time will receive their purchase price plus an early tender premium.
The offer expires on May 22 at 4 p.m. (GMT). The transaction is expected to be settled on May 29, PAL Holdings said.
JP Morgan Securities Ltd. is the sole dealer and manager of this transaction.
As part of the transaction, Trustmark will become the beneficial owner of the purchased notes and other debts.
PAL Holdings said that Trustmark would use the proceeds for future equity subscriptions.
Trustmark is controlled by PAL chair Lucio Tan.
It is the primary shareholder of PAL Holdings Inc. which, in turn, owns 84 percent of the issued share capital of the flag carrier.
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