At least we finally know that PR will do away with F, C will finally be revamped, and AVOD will be coming. Still no word yet on which a/c they will select for additional widebody acquisitions as well as which Indian destination they will select as they are still looking in to it.
Ladies and Gentlemen it's happy hour.You will get two approaches for the price of one.
Carpethead From Japan, joined Aug 2004, 2779 posts, RR: 4 Reply 1, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 2475 times:
Well they entire long-haul fleet has been stagnant for the past ten years albeit the addition of a single ex-CP 744.
At least they have been taking some additional A320s and will be getting some more direct from Toulouse & Hamburg.
Laxintl From United States of America, joined May 2000, 22240 posts, RR: 51 Reply 2, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 2 days 11 hours ago) and read 2451 times:
Its a good move they are moving to a 2-class product long haul. Except for freebies in the past for govt bureaucrats I'm not sure PAL really sold many Trans-Pacific F class seats. A upgraded business class product will help it keep up with the many great products offered by fellow Asian carriers, and might actualy attract some connection traffic flow via Manila.
PAL also needs somersort of tie in with either an alliance or at least a US carrier for frequent flyer benefits.
From the desert to the sea, to all of Southern California
KL808 From United States of America, joined May 1999, 1576 posts, RR: 2 Reply 3, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 2 days 10 hours ago) and read 2402 times:
This is fantastic news!
Getting rid of F is good news. I don't understand why it took so long to get rid of it.
The mention of Cocoon type seats is really exciting, as well as AVOD. Hopefully it would be new generation Cocoon seats far better than whats offered at competing airlines.
Now, with fleet wise, it will be very difficult. PR is currently still under recievership and therefore might have problems with financing. Therefore the manufacturer that can give the best financing shall recieve the order whether be Boeing or Airbus.
In my opinion PR should replace its existing B733/B734 narrow body fleet with A319's and A320's. They are actually doing this right now.
They should add A340-300's, maybe get some from AC, when they recieve their 77W's. In doing so it would be cheaper than buying new aircraft.
They should also add more B744's from the second hand market, to increase frequency and add new markets.
New aircrafts are expensive, and with a modern interior I think PR can stay competitive with second hand aircrafts till 2012.
N751PR From United States of America, joined May 2002, 1247 posts, RR: 2 Reply 5, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 2 days 9 hours ago) and read 2329 times:
Quoting Laxintl (Reply 2): ..and might actualy attract some connection traffic flow via Manila.
I hope that if PR does think more strongly on this, that they make doing such connections a bit smoother for the passenger. After going through immigration, security, immigration again, security again, paying the terminal fee, and, for those of us heading to the US, a third security checkpoint, going from an international flight to another in NAIA Terminal 2 can be a bit of a hassle.
Quoting Laxintl (Reply 2): PAL also needs somersort of tie in with either an alliance or at least a US carrier for frequent flyer benefits.
Some sort of a FFM partnership with a US carrier would be a godsend. As much as I would like to fly PR when I go back to the Philippines, one major problem that comes to mind is frequent flier mile opportunities. Though PR can be a bit generous with mileage bonuses for premium tickets across the Pacific, domestic roundtrip award tickets as low as 6,000 miles and access to the airlines' Mabuhay Lounge after attaining just the first tier of elite status, it's a bit hard for us in the US to earn more miles for our Mabuhay Mile accounts. With only 4 participating hotels, a tour to the Grand Canyon, and the occasional LAS-YVR flight, other opportunities to accrue miles in this side of the Pacific is pretty lame.
On a similar note 5J had an agreement with NW Worldperks where one can accrue and redeem miles but that was terminated back in the end of July.
Quoting Vincewy (Reply 4): BTW, is there a market for 2nd daily flights to LAX as well as new flight to JFK/EWR?
A market does exist for 2nd daily flights to LAX and PR does do 2 flights a day on Wednesday and Sunday (744 and A343). As for the East Coast, I haven't heard much on them returning to the East Coast but at the moment it seems that they are concentrating more on the West with announcements of possible flights to SEA and SAN. PR did serve EWR but was axed back in the 1990s.
[Edited 2006-08-31 07:19:58]
Ladies and Gentlemen it's happy hour.You will get two approaches for the price of one.
KL808 From United States of America, joined May 1999, 1576 posts, RR: 2 Reply 6, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 2178 times:
BTW here is PR's first brand spanking new A319, mentioned in the article, which is going to be delivered next month.
Vincewy From Taiwan, joined Oct 2005, 767 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 2157 times:
Quoting N751PR (Reply 5): A market does exist for 2nd daily flights to LAX and PR does do 2 flights a day on Wednesday and Sunday (744 and A343).
The reason I asked about this, is the fact that every evening I'm at LAX, the PAL flight is always packed to the gill + everyone is carrying large amount of luggage. In the early 70s and 80s PAL was promoting their services to US in Taiwan (going through MNL) and now they seem to steer away from connecting traffic and focus mainly on O&D, in fact, they make their intra-Asia flight schedules so inconvenient for connecting and cater toward local O&D. IMHO, not a wrong thing to do since they can barely meet the demand of Filipinos travellers. I don't even think they need to worry too much about IFE on board, as their long haul flights are almost always full.
KL808 From United States of America, joined May 1999, 1576 posts, RR: 2 Reply 8, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 2137 times:
Quoting Vincewy (Reply 7): The reason I asked about this, is the fact that every evening I'm at LAX, the PAL flight is always packed to the gill + everyone is carrying large amount of luggage. In the early 70s and 80s PAL was promoting their services to US in Taiwan (going through MNL) and now they seem to steer away from connecting traffic and focus mainly on O&D, in fact, they make their intra-Asia flight schedules so inconvenient for connecting and cater toward local O&D. IMHO, not a wrong thing to do since they can barely meet the demand of Filipinos travellers. I don't even think they need to worry too much about IFE on board, as their long haul flights are almost always full.
I totally agree with you. PR's business strategy is more towards local O&D pax. That's why PR is better off adding A330/A340's and B744 into the fleet to reduce costs and start increasing frequency to LAX, SFO, YVR, HNL, and LAS. More A32X aircraft and they can start adding better frequencies to cities they already fly to, and fix the schedule a bit to be able to have some transiting pax.
With good frequencies and brand new cabin products I can see PR offering good competition for travelers on the following route via MNL:
LAX/SFO/HNL/YVR to BKK/SIN/KUL/CGK/SGN and maybe even HKG. (Note CGK is operated via SIN, in this example its hypotheticaly direct)
DEVILFISH From Philippines, joined Jan 2006, 4450 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 2103 times:
Quoting N751PR (Thread starter):
At least we finally know that PR will do away with F,
It's widely accepted that their first class product isn't their bread and butter. Focusing on the Mabuhay class and economy is a move in the right direction. PR can afford to forego the few F passengers to and from MNL to other carriers until they are in a position to compete for them.
Quoting Vincewy (Reply 7): in fact, they make their intra-Asia flight schedules so inconvenient for connecting and cater toward local O&D.
The imminent arrival of more A320s might alleviate this in the meantime until they could firm up on the regional widebody candidate. One other thing that inconveniences connecting passengers is the continuous delay of Terminal 3 opening.
Quoting KL808 (Reply 6): Note: Single over wing exits only compared to 5J's dual overwing exits. I guess slightly better pitch in Y.
This has been a major complaint against 5J's A319.
Quoting N751PR (Reply 5): As for the East Coast, I haven't heard much on them returning to the East Coast
There was a thread about a month ago regarding this but no further news.
Quoting KL808 (Reply 3):
Now, with fleet wise, it will be very difficult. PR is currently still under recievership and therefore might have problems with financing.
PR's good showing in terms of profit margin in another thread might help its cause of convincing prospective financiers.
N751PR From United States of America, joined May 2002, 1247 posts, RR: 2 Reply 10, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 2058 times:
Quoting DEVILFISH (Reply 9):
It's widely accepted that their first class product isn't their bread and butter. Focusing on the Mabuhay class and economy is a move in the right direction. PR can afford to forego the few F passengers to and from MNL to other carriers until they are in a position to compete for them.
PR's F has never been their bread and butter for quite a while esp. with a product that can't compete with other airlines in the neighborhood in which PR would charge lower fares and do promotions such as "buy one, get one free" to fill up those seats. With less of a demand for F on this O&D market and with lie-flat C seats being introduced, the idea of PR investing, upgrading and maintaining a F product seems to be redundant. As much as I would not like to hear PR do away with it out of prestige (long live the era of Sky Beds! ), it currently doesn't seem practical unless you want to fill up those seats with connecting passengers or cater to a small niche in the O&D market that could actually afford it/bother with it whereas C class nowadays seems to be getting a tad more luxurious with some airlines.
Quoting DEVILFISH (Reply 9): There was a thread about a month ago regarding this but no further news.
AFAIK, I've only noticed a thread on the possible service to SAN and SEA but never heard anything major on the return to the East.
Ladies and Gentlemen it's happy hour.You will get two approaches for the price of one.
DEVILFISH From Philippines, joined Jan 2006, 4450 posts, RR: 1 Reply 11, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 1965 times:
Quoting N751PR (Reply 10): but never heard anything major on the return to the East.
Ah yes. There were just a couple or so of questions in that thread regarding the possibility of either EWR or JFK. There is arguably an untapped market there, but without fifth freedom rights, its viability would likely be crushed under the weight of the larger carriers. Code sharing could work more for its would-be partner's benefit.
Given China's and India's booming economies, and the large Chinese and Indian communities in RP, adding flights to Beijing and opening either Delhi or Mumbai might pay off.
KL808 From United States of America, joined May 1999, 1576 posts, RR: 2 Reply 12, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 1934 times:
Quoting DEVILFISH (Reply 11): but without fifth freedom rights, its viability would likely be crushed under the weight of the larger carriers.
Actually, PR has 5th freedom rights from YVR, therefore if they have extra A340's and willing to open YVR-EWR/JFK it can be possible with full rights.
Vincewy From Taiwan, joined Oct 2005, 767 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (6 years 9 months 3 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 1823 times:
Quoting KL808 (Reply 8): LAX/SFO/HNL/YVR to BKK/SIN/KUL/CGK/SGN and maybe even HKG
If PR wants to maintain decent yield, the only transit sector they should go after getting A320s is SGN, currently it's once daily, if they can go twice daily, one in the morning, another late pm. In US, BR and CI offer very competitive fares to BKK, SIN, and even CGK. SGN fares are normally $150 to $200 more than the aforementioned cities, despite shorter distance.
If you look at their flights to BKK and PVG (10-11am), the schedule favors local residents and travellers in Manila who can get up later and take time to get to MNL in the morning, but connecting from PR 103/105 would require waiting in MNL for 5+ hours.
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), it currently doesn't seem practical unless you want to fill up those seats with connecting passengers or cater to a small niche in the O&D market that could actually afford it/bother with it whereas C class nowadays seems to be getting a tad more luxurious with some airlines.
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