PAL says its operations were not affected by union rally

MANILA, Philippines - Last Friday’s protest actions by some members of Philippine Airlines’ (PAL) ground union and their sympathizers had no material impact on airline operations, the flag carrier said yesterday.

PAL said it registered a relatively high on-time performance of 85 percent on Friday, Sept. 16, with all published flights operated for a 100-percent reliability rating.

This despite the massive traffic jam caused by a rally led by the PAL Employees Association (PALEA) whose leadership is opposing PAL’s scheduled spin off/outsourcing of three non-core departments.

PAL deployed hundreds of volunteers – consisting of administrative staff and on-duty PALEA members who did not join the union protest. They picked up stranded passengers and brought them to PAL’s hub at NAIA Terminal 2 using five chartered airconditioned buses that were allowed by airport authorities to take the service roads inside the airport complex.

“We apologize to our passengers and the general public who were gravely inconvenienced by yesterday’s protest action,” said PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna. “Fortunately, the contingency measures that PAL put in place enabled all our passengers to catch their flights.”

PAL deployed the aircon buses in five strategic areas around the airport, allowing stranded passengers to be whisked to Terminal 2 using airside roads.

“We thank all our employees, volunteers, airport authorities, the police and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority for their generous cooperation and support. It would have been a different story without their valuable assistance.”

Meanwhile, Villaluna said the service providers tapped to take over the catering and ground-handling units of PAL have secured the necessary accreditation from the Department of Labor and Employment.

For several weeks now, PAL has been meeting regularly with officials of SkyLogistics Philippines, SkyKitchen Philippines and SPi Global to iron out details for the smooth transition of operations of the airport services, catering services and reservations/call center on Oct. 1, 2011.

“As we prepare for a seamless transition to the service providers, the goal is to have the least disruption to our operations,” said Villaluna. “We try not to let union actions distract us from that focus.”