Air Philippines operations not affected by PAL crisis

CEBU, Philippines – Air Philippines, the low-cost arm of the country's flag carrier Philippine Airlines, assured the public that the operations of AirPhil Express will not be affected by the issues hounding its sister-company.

AirPhil Express is 99 percent owned by the Lucio Tan Group of Companies, which also owns 95 percent of PAL.

Maria Java, AirPhil Express vice president for media, said the airline maintains its own pilot pool and continually source pilots and facilitate its own flight crew training programs independently.

"We invest heavily in training for our pilots in Japan and Canada, Australia and Hong Kong. Thus far, we are pleased that AirPhil Express operations continue to be normal and uninterrupted," she told The Freeman.

Java said the airline is also anticipating additional flight crew requirement to accommodate its phased three-year re-fleeting plan, which includes the purchase of 18 Airbus 320 planes from France . Six A320 are expected to be delivered every year beginning this year.

With regards to benefits to employees, the benefits structure across the organization-administration, marketing, ground personnel, among others-is different from a legacy carrier such as PAL since AirPhil Express is a low-cost carrier business model.

"But our pilots enjoy renumeration in the same salary range as PAL and pilot resignation is not an issue with AirPhil Express," Java said.

The low-cost airline had its Cebu-Manila and Davao-Manila maiden flights on July 20, 2010. AirPhil Express initially flies Cebu to Manila ones a day but the frequency is set to increase to four flights daily in October this year.

In a separate interview, Island Souvenirs Inc. president Jay Aldeguer said the presence of other airlines such as AirPhil Express and Cebu Pacific (CEB) has mitigated the effects of the resignation of 25 PAL pilots from the company.

"We have CEB now. (Unlike) the first massive strike of PAL employees in the 1990s, which was more damaging to the country's economy than the Asian financial crisis. (Although there is still a negative impact to the economy of this event,)" he said.

In a report, PAL president Jaime Bautista assured the riding public that there will be no disruption in PAL flights even if the pilots refuse to heed the company's return-to-work offer. Last Sunday however, PAL has cancelled some of its domestic flights and reduced Cebu-Davao, Manila-Ozamiz, Dipolog, Puerto Princesa and Cebu routes from August 9 to November 30 due to the "lean season."

"Capacity rationalization is routinely done in anticipation of lower passenger volume, especially tourists, during the rainy months from August to November. It also coincides with the reduced number of PAL pilots who left for jobs abroad," Bautista said. (THE FREEMAN)