PAL, TFC excite Toronto Pinoys

TORONTO – The Manila-Toronto direct flight of Philippine Airlines and ABS-CBN’s The Filipino Channel got a warm reception from Filipino Canadians over the last weekend. An early Christmas fiesta called Paskuhan Village was held at the Toronto Convention Center last Saturday where at least 6000 Toronto-based Canadian-Pinoys enjoyed the sights, sounds and taste of home. There was a tiangge where goods and services from the homeland were on sale. A program spearheaded by ABS-CBN stars Toni Gonzaga, Gerald Anderson and Sam Milby kept everyone busy and entertained.

There were long lines at the Philippine Airlines booth for Mabuhay cards that gave substantial discounts on Manila-bound tickets. They were particularly excited about the start of a direct air service between Manila and Toronto.

TFC or The Filipino Channel which arranged for the Kapamilya stars to grace the event also got a lot of interest for subscriptions. The TFC service allows North American subscribers to watch shows from ABS-CBN and ANC and acts as a principal daily link of overseas Filipinos to the homeland. Mario Marasigan, TFC’s head for sales and distribution for Canada, said they now have more than 50,000 of the 250,000 Filipino-Canadian community in this metropolis even if they have only been here for a few years.

Marasigan said TFC is now so entrenched in the homes of Pinoys in North America, TFC now stands for The Filipino Community and is no longer just a cable or satellite channel. TFC is now celebrating its 20th anniversary.

Indeed, Filipinos cast a strong presence in Canada today. One cannot help hearing Tagalog being spoken almost anywhere in this business capital of Canada. Results of the 2011 Census of Population: Linguistic Characteristics of Canadians released by Statistics Canada (StatCan) showed that Tagalog is the fifth most common non-official language spoken in Canadian households.

“Nearly 279,000 people reported speaking Tagalog most often in 2011, up from 170,000 five years earlier,” the survey said.. StatCan noted “the home languages showing the strongest growth between 2006 and 2011 were primarily Asian,” and the “the population that reported speaking the Philippine-based language Tagalog increased by 64 percent, the highest growth.”

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, during his recent visit to Manila, expressed admiration for Filipinos for being hardworking and law-abiding. He said Filipinos are present “in literally every community and make valuable contributions to every sector of our economy.” I am told that many of our countrymen hold two or even more jobs to earn enough to live here and also send money  back home. What excites PAL about them is their inclination to make regular trips back home specially during the holiday season.

PAL officials who are now here in connection with the inaugural flight are optimistic about the potentials for success of their new direct flight service from Manila. Filipino Canadians, they said, are among the largest visitor groups to the Philippines. They claim there are indications that the record number of Canadian-Filipino arrivals last year will be surpassed this year even if the direct Manila-Toronto service was just launched.

PAL is also targeting Filipinos living in the American east coast. They are now starting to get passengers from as far as Virginia who fly to Toronto to catch the direct flight to Manila. Other Southeast Asians like the Vietnamese and the Thais are also in PAL’s marketing radar since there are connecting PAL flights to Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok from Manila.

PAL marketing officials who joined the inaugural flight last Friday are flying to New York to meet with travel agents and convince them to use the airline’s Toronto flights for passengers flying to Southeast Asia. This approach will minimize the negative impact of the Philippine government’s failure to get a rating upgrade by the US FAA to Category 1.

The remaking of the airline is now in full operation. Not only does PAL now have new and younger flight attendants and a more respectably edible menu, PAL has also gone more high tech. The new passenger services system integrated the airline’s various frontline computer systems, resulting in a one-stop-shop convenience for PAL customers.

The inflight entertainment system of the new B777-300ER or Extended Range planes are now equipped with audio-video on-demand capability.  PAL will also introduce Apple iPads as an inflight entertainment option on trans-Pacific flights. PAL officials claim the airline will be the first full service airline in Asia to have Apple iPads inflight. The third generation tablets will be loaded with various inflight entertainment options – from the latest full-length movies, TV shows, music, games, to the latest newspapers and magazines.

Aside from expanding its fleet and international route network, a most notable customer service enhancement introduced by the new San Miguel management of the airline is gourmet inflight cuisine. The new cuisines will kick off the “PAL Master Chef” series. The menu choices will also be influenced by the tastes and expectations of its passengers.

With Asian routes making up over two-thirds of PAL’s international network, the flag carrier has brought on board three other Asian chefs. The restyled menu starting next year will feature the work of Filipino avant-garde chef Fernando Aracama, Irish chef Billy King, Malaysian chef See Cheong Yan, Japanese chef Masahiro Mizumoto and Thai chef Khun Suwanna Puangdee.

I have noticed however that even if there was noticeable improvement of the meals served during the inaugural flight, much more could be done. The tapsilog served for breakfast, for instance isn’t as good as the humbler Manila street variety that could be found in places like Tapa King. Hopefully, when the celebrated Fernando Aracama starts showing his touch, Filipino comfort food served will finally win long deserved international respect. The new menus will be gradually introduced on PAL flights starting April 2013.  

Beyond the food and in-flight service however, the success of Ramon Ang’s remaking of the airline will also depend on how well his new business plans work. They may have to rethink for instance, the decision to pull out Airphil Express from bigger domestic markets like Cebu and Davao. 

The “rationalization of routes” as announced by the airline was supposedly to avoid competing with each other. But it would seem to me that Airphil is competing with Cebu Pacific and other budget carriers rather than PAL. Because the cost and fare structure of Airphil is more in line with budget carriers, I wouldn’t be surprised if CebPac is benefiting from the move rather than PAL. Unless PAL can match the very low fares of the budget airlines, it would seem it abandoned the market in these bigger cities by pulling Airphil out.

The announced plan to rename Airphil to PAL Express may also need to be re-thought. A lot of resources have been invested in the Airphil brand image and a rename would just dump all the investments down the drain, only to start all over with a new name. Having PAL in the new name may also confuse image perception on what it really is. PAL is a full service airline. Airphil is budget. There is no confusion there externally with their markets. There should be no confusion internally among PAL’s new management.

Mr. Ang’s ability to realize his plans for PAL depends on how he wins support of the airline’s restive staff who seem to be giving him the benefit of the doubt for now. The airline has excellent pilots, for instance, and their skills are highly marketable internationally. 

The pilots on board the inaugural flight are good examples. They landed that behemoth of a plane so softly, the way PAL pilots are expected to. No wonder all passengers gave a thunderous applause as in the end of a good concert. Captains Aquino and Masmela, First Officers Sy and Tabuena are gems the airline must be able to keep happy enough for them to stay.

The best part of Mr. Ang’s PAL makeover is the airport project. If he can pull that off, there will be no reason to doubt he can pull off everything else.

Q and A

Robin Tong sent this one.

When my wife was still my girl friend, she was the answer to all my questions.

Now that she is my wife, she questions all my answers.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco

You can now visit me on the web at http://www.boochanco.com